01 R 

CURRENCY. 


DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 


Treasure  %^om 


OUR   CURRENCY: 


SOME  OP  ITS  EVILS. 


AND 


REMEDIES  FOR  THEM. 


BY  A  CITIZEN  OF  NuRTH  CAROLINA. 


RALEIGH : 

JOHN    W.    SYME,    PRINTER    TO   THE    STATE   CONVENTION . 

1861. 


<?  j¥ 


2.     6   */ 


/ 


COPYRIGHT  SECURED  ACCORDING  TO  LAW. 


OUR  CURRENCY: 

SOME  OF  ITS  EVILS,  AND  REMEDIES  FOR  THEM. 


He  who  would  rightly  understand  the  subject  of  currency, 
should,  we  think,  begin  with  the  position,  that  the  real  and  intrinsic 
value  of  gold  and  silver  is  almost  nothing;  that,  in  other  words, 
their  current  value,  is  ideal,  imaginary,  conventional,  representa- 
tive; that  the  true  order,  in  real  and  intrinsic  value,  of  the 
metals  and  of  some  of  the  minerals,  has  been  invened;  that  the 
diamond,  for  instance,  which  is  valued  above  them  all.  is  really  and 
intrinsically,  the  most  worthless  of  them  all;  that  it  has  but  one 
really  valuable  property,  viz  :  that  or  cutting  glass,  which,  how- 
ever, may  be  done  by  other  means;  that  next  to  the  diamond, 
gold,  which  is  so  highly  prized,  is  of  less  intrinsic  value,  much 
.  if  indeed  it  have  anr.  than  iron — so  also,  of  silver;  that  the 
true  order  of  the  metals  and  of  the  mineral  mentioned,  in  real 
value  is,  iron  first,  and  far  above  them  all — infinitely  so;  then 
perhaps,  copper,  next  to  iron;  then  gold  or  silver;  and  lastly,  the 
diamond.  This  idea,  fixed  in  the  mind,  and  properly  dwelt  upon, 
will  aid  in  the  correction  of  errors  almost  universally  prevalent, 
upon  the  subject  of  currency ;  as,  for  instance,  that  bank  notes  are 
merely  the  representatives  of  gold  and  silver;  that  they  are  not 
money;  that  they  do  not  and  cannot  add  any  thing  to  capital. 
We  shall  see  of  these  things,  however,  further  in  the  sequel. 

So,  too,  he  who  would  rightly  understand  the  subject,  should 
make  himself  as  familiar  in  thought  at  least,  "if  not  in  expression, 
with  the  idea  of  buying  gold  or  silver  with  other  property,  as  land, 
or  corn,  or  cotton,  or  horses,  or  other  goods,  as  he  is  now  with  the 
opposite  expressions.  It  would  doubtless  sound  strangely  at  first 
to  hear  one  say  he  is  going  to  buy  an  hundred  dollars  in  gold  or 
silver  with  a  parcel  of  wheat  or  cotton;  or  another,  that  he  wishes 
to  purchase  an  hundred  dollars  in  silver  with  his  horse ;  or  a  third 
person,  that  he  has  bought  five  thousand  dollars  with  his  farm  or 
plantation  ;  and  yet,  either  one  of  those  expressions  would  be  as 
true  as  its  opposite.  The  euphony  of  language  might  seem  to  be 
a  little  disturbed  by  the  use  of  them,  but  only  so  because  they 
would  be  new  to  the  ear.     A.  with  his  hundred  dollars  in  gold, 


8 

or  silver,  or  bank  notes,  does  not  more  really  buy  B's  horse  than 
B,  with  his  horse,  buys  A's  hundred  dollars.  It  is  a  mere  ex- 
change between  them,  of  commodities  of  different  kinds.  They 
both  buy,  they  both  sell,  in  fact.  In  other  words,  he  that  would 
rightly  understand  the  subject  should  learn,  and  have  it  fixed  in 
his  mind,  that  gold  and  silver  are  commercial  commodities,  subject 
to  all  the  laws  that  govern  other  commodities  of  commerce,  in  their 
relations  to  one  another,  of  comparative  abundance  or  scarcity.  It 
is  not  more  true,  for  instance,  that*an  abundant  crop  of  wheat  in 
the  country — the  amount  of  currency  and  the  quantity  of  the 
other  cereals  remaining  unchanged — will  reduce  the  prices  of 
wheat,  than  it  is,  that  the  crop  of  wheat  being  an  ordinary  one, 
allowance  being  made  for  increase  of  population,  &c,  that  an 
increased  amount  of  currency,  will  increase  the  prices  of  wheat. 
These  results  are  not  always  necessarily  uniform,  invariably  so, 
we  admit.  The  increased  quantity  of  wheat  may  be  absorbed  by  a 
diminution  of  the  crop  of  indian  corn,  or  by  means  of  some  other 
scarcity,  and  so  the  increase  of  currency,  may  be  taken  up  by  some- 
thin0,  else,  and  the  price  of  wheat  remain  stationary.  But  all  we 
claim  is,  that  gold  and  silver  are  commodities  of  commerce,  and 
that  the  same  results,  "  mutatis  mutandis,"  are  to  be  looked  for 
from  the  abundance  or  scarcity  of  them,  compared  with  other 
commodities*  as  grow  out  of  the  abundance  or  scarcity  of  those 
other  commodities,  compared  with  each  other.  That  the  relations 
of  those  commodities  to  each  other  are  intricate  and  difficult  to  be 
thoroughly  traced  out,  is  certainly  true ;  and  that  that  difficulty  is 
much  enhanced  where  gold  and  silver  are  one  of  them,  is  equally 
true  •  and  in  the  greater  ability  of  one  commercial  man  than  others 
to  do  it,  perhaps,  consists  his  superiority  and  greater  success  in  busi- 
ness. They,  gold  and  silver,  are  more  universally  used,  and  have 
a  much  more  extended  and  uniform  value  or  estimation  than  any 
thing  else  in  comme'ree ;  but  that  fact,  instead  of  taking  away 
from  their  character  of  commercial  commodities,  goes  to  charac- 
terize them  the  more  strongly.  To  return:  To  buy,  we  know, 
universally  implies,  into  whatever  language  it  may  be  translated, 
the  use  of  money.  So  we  learn  it,  such  is  our  language ;  we  grow 
familiar  with  it  as  we  grow  up,  and,  indeed,  never  hear  of  buying 
with  any  thing  but  money.     We  do  not  complain  of  it,  or  wish  it 


altered;  but  thence  clearly  arises  one  of  the  difficulties  of  fairly 
getting  hold  of  the  subject  of  currency  in  a  truly  analytical  way. 
The  mode  of  expression  gives  direction  to  the  manner  or  current  of 
thought  upon  the  subject,  whereby  we  are  misled. 

So,  too,  the  difference  between  the  external  or  foreign  commerce, 
of  a  people  or  nation,  and  their  internal  or  domestic  commerce, 
.should  be  considered.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that  our  internal 
commerce  greatly  exceeds,  in  amount,  our  external  or  foreign.  Our 
foreign  commercial  currency  is,  gold  and  silver;  our  internal  is 
paper.  No  European  or  other  foreign  merchant,  who  sends  or  sells 
his  wares  to  the  United  States,  thinks  of  taking  in  payment  for 
them  our  paper  currency.  Not  so  with  much,  nearly  all,  indeed, 
of  our  internal  commerce.  It  is  carried  on  with  paper,  bank  notes, 
bills  of  exchange,  kc. 

Capital,  too,  is  a  thing  much  misunderstood.  It  is,  we  admit, 
a  word  in  this  country,  and  indeed  in  all  commercial  countries, 
but  particularly  in  ours,  of  uncertain  and  unsteady  meaning.  It 
is  very  changeable,  too.  What  is  really  capital  to-day,  and  reckoned 
as  such,  may  not  be  capital  to-morrow.  Under  an  inflated  state  ot 
the  currency,  what  is  admitted  to  be  capital,  may  be,  indeed  must 
be,  very  different  in  amount  from  what  it  would  be  under  an 
opposite  condition  of  the  currency.  How  would  the  valuation  o* 
property  in  the  city  of  New  York,  e.  g.  made  carefully  by  compe- 
ten  and  correct  men,  under  the  currency  as  it  exists  there  to- 
differ  in  amount  from  a  valuation  made,  after  all  the  bank  notes 
in  circulation  should  have  been  called  in  and  nothing  substituted 
for  them  ?  We  noticed  a  valuation  of  Boston  recently — $262,000,- 
000,  in  all ;  but  what  would  it  be  after  the  withdrawal  of  all  the 
bank  notes  from  circulation,  and  no  substitution  of  any  thing  in 
their  stead  ?  Bank  notes  not  capital !  Why,  they  constitute  a  large 
portion  of  the  capital  of  the  country.  Not  capital !  Why,  a  good 
counterfeit  bank  note  in  circulation — no  matter,  indeed,  whether 
so  very  well  done  or  not,  so  long  as  it  is  not  detected — is,  for  the 
time,  an  addition  to  capital.  We  have  known  an  old  and  curiously 
wrought  button,  with  the  eye  purposely  broken  off,  to  constitute  a 
part  of  the  capital  of  a  set  of  men  who  had  agreed  amongst  them- 
selves to  receive  it  as  a  sixpence.  Out  of  the  circle  of  those  meu, 
it  was  an  old  broken  and  worthless  button,  but  within  it,  it  was  as 


10 

good  as  a  silver  sixpence,  and  passed  for  one,  and  it  was  amusing 
to  notice  the  constant  increase  of  the  circle  in  numbers.     It  may, 
for  aught  we  know  to  the  contrary,  be  yet  in  existence,  and  still 
circulating  its  worthless  button.    Bank  notes  don't  increase  capital ! 
We  should  like  to  know  who,  if  he  had  in  his  pocket  $20,000  of 
the  notes  of  one  of  the  best  banks  in  New  York,  or  Charleston,  or 
New  Orleans,  would  not  feel  that  he  had  capital?     Inform  him,  if 
you  please,  that  the  bank  held  but  one  dollar  in  specie  for  every 
three  dollars  that  it  had  in  circulation  in  notes ;  would  you  alarm 
him  ?     Would  he   change  his  mind  and  doubt  his  $20,000  being 
capital  ?     Daily  experience,  constantly  occurring  facts,  prove  the 
contrary.     Take  another  case:  A  holds  $20,0*00  of  the  notes  of  a 
very  good  bank.  The  Assessor  comes  to  him  to  ascertain  his  estate 
and  assess  his  tax.  To  the  inquiry,  "  how  much  money  have  you?" 
A  replies,  "  I  have  no  gold  or  silver;  I  have  $20,000  of  the  notes 
of  the  bank,"  naming  it,  "  but  they  are  not  money;  they  are  not 
capital;  you  can't  tax  them."     "  But,"  says  the  Assessor,  "  they 
are  capital,  and  I  must  tax  them."     A  replies,  "  they  are  not,  and 
besides,  you  have  already  taxed  them  at  the  bank ;  their  capital  is 
$500,000 ;  you  have  taxed  that — that  lies  in  their  vaults — I  have 
only  their  notes;  no  part  of  their  capital,  and  they  are  not  taxable; 
they  are  not  money,  and  do  not  make  or  increase  capital."     It 
would  be  no  easy  matter,  I  trust,  to  get  clear  of  an  assessor  by 
such  an  argument.     Bank  notes  do  make,  do  add  to,  do  increase 
capital.     They  may  not  always  do  so.  Some  misfortune  may  occur 
to,  or  there  may  be  some  mal-administration  of,  a  bank-,  and  the 
whole  excess  of  its  issues  may  cease,  in  a  moment,  to  be  capital; 
but  that  does  not  alter  the  fact  asserted.     We  have  just  now  seen 
that  metals,  in  themselves  worthless,  may,  and  actually  have,  be- 
come the  representatives  of  value;  have  become  money;  have 
become,  in  fact,  the  measures  of  value  ;  that  they  do,  indisputa- 
bly, constitute  a  large  portion  of  the  acknowledged  capital  of  the 
country,  not  only,  but  of  the  world.     No  one  will  be  found  to 
dispute  this.     Well,  if  the  world,  or  the  commercial  portion  of  it, 
may  make  metals  of  no  value  in  themselves,  the  representatives 
of  value;  the  measures  of  it,  in  fact;  may  make  them  capital — 
may  not  a  portion  of  the  world,  a  State,  a  government,  a  nation, 
for  instance,  make  some  other  material,  with  suitable  and  conve- 
nient devices  upon  it,  a  representative  of  value,  as  well,  for  its  own 


11 


internal  uses,  for  its  domestic  commerce?  We  not  only  claim 
that  it  can  be  done,  but  that  it  actually  has  been  done,  is  being 
done  now,  here,  to-day,  amongst  ourselves,  and  we  are  all  the  wit- 
nesses of  it — with  what  experience,  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel. 

But  bank  notes,  it  is  insisted  upon,  are  not  money.     This  objec- 
tion has,  perhaps,  been  fully  met  under  the  head  of  capital.     If, 
as  is  claimed  above,  they  make  or  add  to  capital,  they  can  only  do 
so  as  money.     It  may  be  useful,  however,  and  perhaps  facilitate  a 
right  understanding  of  the  whole  subject,  to  inquire  what  is  money  ? 
We  answer,  it  is  merely  a  measure  ofvatue^  and  may  be  of  ^old  or 
silver,   or  of  paper— bank  notes.     We  use  it,  and  indeed  it  has 
become  indispensable,  for  the  same  reasons  that  the  pound  weight, 
the  yardstick,  the  gallon  measure,  etc.,  have  become  so.     And  the 
greatest  inconvenience  resulting  from  the  use  of  it,  is,  perhaps,  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  most  uncertain  and  variable  of  all  our  measures. 
For,  although  the  measure  of  length  or  breadth  is  derived,  origin- 
ally, from  three  barley  corns  laid  end  to  end,  which  makes  the 
inch,  that   of  weight  from  the  same  source,  and,  indeed,  all  our 
measures  from  sources  equally  simple  •  yet,  no  one  of  them  all 
is  half  as  uncertain,  irregular,  variable  and  fluctuating,  as  is  the 
measure  of  value.     A  planter  may  have  his  bales  of" cotton  for 
sale,  or  his  hogsheads  of  sugar,  his  barrels  or  bushels  of  wheat,  or 
of  Indian   corn,  or  his  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  or  any  other  of  the 
products    of  his  plantation ;    a  farmer,    his  cereals  of  different 
kinds,  or  his  beef  or  pork;  a  distiller,  his  whiskey,  and  so  on,  of  all 
the  producers  or  sellers  of,  or  dealers   in,  commodities  of  almost 
every  kind,  and  he  can,  and  generally  does,  ascertain  with  great 
accuracy  and  precision,  the  quantity  of  any  article  he  may  have 
fur  sale,  in  weight,  to  an  ouuee,  or  even  less  than  that— in  capacity 
to  the  smallest  modicum,  or  in  length  to  an  hair's  breadth— having 
done  which,  however,  though  never  so  carefully  and  accurately^ 
he  must  at  last  submit  to  having  the  value  of  any  and  every  one 
of  those  products  measured  by  that  unsteady,  everchanging  and 
fluctuating  measure  of  value,   money— a  measure,  to  alT  the  un- 
steadiness and  inequality   bf  which,   arising  from  the  proverbial 
uncertainties  of  mining,  and  the  very  unequal,  annual,  or  other 
periodical  products,  of  gold  or  silver,  from  the  unsteadiness  and 
fluctuation  in  the  quantities  ot  them,  that  necessarily  result  from 
the  facts,  that  they  are  the  currency  of  the  world,  that  every  peo- 


12 

pie  under  the  sun  are  constantly  striving  to  get  them  into  their 
possession,  and  to  keep  them,  and  that  they  arc  an  universal  mea- 
sure of  value.  To  all  which  unsteadiness  and  inequality,  of  which 
measure,  we  say,  we  in  the  United  States  deliberately  superadd  • 
nay,  take  great  pains  and  care,  and  are  at  great  trouble  and  expense 
to  empower,  by  solemn  acts  of  legislation,  in  more  than  thirty  dif- 
ferent States,  companies  of  men,  to  superadd  all  the  irregularities 
that  must  necessarily  result  from  each  one  of  those  companies, 
making  and  issuing  almost  "ad  libitum,"  this  measure  of  value 
in  paper — bank  notes ;  it  being,  at  the  same  time,  the  interest  of 
each  one  of  those  companies  to  issue  as  much  of  it  as  it  can. 

There,  reader,  stands  the  naked  fact  in  all  its  deformitiy,  stript 
of  concealment.  We  are  no  painter,  and  would  not  colour  it  in 
the  slightest  degree,  if  we  could. 

Ah  !  but,  says  some  one,  and  indeed  the  idea  is  generally  preva- 
lent, "bank  notes  do  not  measure  value;  it  is  only  gold  and  silver 
money  that  do  that."  Pray,  objector,  whoever  you  may  be,  think 
of  that  again.  Are  they  not  capital  ?  Do  they  not  add  to,  increase, 
and  make  capital  ?  If  you  have  gone  with  us  through  the  argu- 
ment under  that  head,  yielding  your  assent,  it  is  now  quite  too  late 
to  attempt  to  withdraw  it.  We  have  no  desire  to  entrap  you,  if  we 
could,  but  the  danger  now  lies  in  your  attempt  to  retreat.  Let  us 
proceed,  then. 

If  bank  notes  do  make  or  add  to  capital,  they  can  do  so  only  in 
the  character  of  money.  What  is  there  in  a  slip  of  used-up-paper, 
however  fine  and  beautifully  ornamented,  that  can  give  it  value  or 
importance,  but  the  idea  of  money?  And  do  not  bank  notes,  in 
their  limited  sphere,  perform  all  the  offices,  answer  the  same  ends 
that  money  does  ?  Do  they  not  pass  from  hand  to  hand,  pay  debts, 
purchase  property  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  gold  and  silver  money 
does  1  Ah !  but,  you  say,  all  that  arises  from  their  representative 
character j  from  the  fact  that  they  are,  or  are  believed  to  be 
redeemable  in  gold  and  silver  at  the  pleasure  of  the  holders  of 
them.  But  have  we  not  seen  that  gold  and  silver  are  also  mere 
representatives  of  value  ?  Who  would  want,  or  have,  or  care  for 
them,  if  they,  too,  were » not  redeemable  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
holders  of  them,  in  other  property  of  real  and  intrinsic  value?  We 
have  already  seen  that  they  are,  in  and  of  themselves,  as  worthless 
as  the  used-up-paper  of  the  bank  note.  Value  is  ideal,  conventional, 


13 

in  both  cases,  equally  so;  with  the  single  difference  in  favor  of  gold 
and  silver,  thattheidea  is  world-wide  or  co-extensive,  at  least,  with 
the  commercial  world,  whilst  that  idea  in  relation  to  bank  notes 
is  confined  to  the  State  or  country  in  which  they  are  issued.  Gold 
and  silver  money  go  out  with  natural  and  known  ear-marks  (so  to 
speak)  that  clearly   designate   them   throughout  the  world — ~o 
where  their  value  is  recognized,  and  has  been  for  centuries.  They 
are  commercial  commodities  every  where,  and  as  such  have  been 
known   and  used   time   immemorial.     The  idea  of  value  attaches 
to  them  everywhere;  whereas,  the  bank  note  carries  with  it  no 
such  distinguishing  marks  beyond  the  State  or  country  in  which  it 
is  issued.     The  idea  of  paper  money  is  modern ;  is  of  recent  origin ; 
it  has  not  the  sanction  of  the  commercial  world,  and  is  not,  indeed, 
known  to  much  of  it.     It  is  none  the  less,  however,  the  money  of 
our  internal  commerce ;  and  need  it  be  argued  farther  that  the 
long  and  continued  use  of  it,  habit,  custom,  considerations  of  its 
convenience,   its  portableness,   facility  of  storage,   its  durability 
under   ordinary  care,  its  exemption  from  abrasion,  together  with 
its  various  and  numerous  other  good  qualities,  all  go  to  recommend 
it  as  money,  as  far  as  it  can  be  made  to  circulate,  and  to  bespeak 
a  faith  and  confidence  in  it  like  that,  that  obtains  in  favor  of  gold 
and  silver?  They  who  have  taken  the  trouble  to  trace  paper  money, 
in  history,  to  its  first  introduction  into  use,  have  seen  with  what 
•facility,  and  how  readily  it  may  be  introduced  and  become  money 
to  all  intents  and  purposes.     But  why  pursue  the  argument  of  a 
fact  so  palpable,  especially  to  the  people  of  these  United  States ; 
to  a  people  who  have  learned  in  their  schools,  from  their  legisla- 
lators  individually  and  collectively,  from  their  governors — from 
their  laws,  from  habit;  aye,  and  we  will  even  go  so  far  as  to  say, 
from  their  experience,  that  a  bank  note  issue  of  three  dollars  for 
one  dollar  of  gold  or  silver  in  its  hands,  is  a  safe,  prudent  and 
provident  issue,  as  well  for  the  community  as  for  the  bank  itself. 
Pray  let  us  ask  what  are  the  two  one  dollar  notes  over  and  above 
the  one  that  represents  the  dollar  in  gold  or  silver  in  the  vault  of 
the  bank,  but  money  ?     That  the  one  is,  we  presume,  all  will 
admit;  but  do  not  all  the  three  pass  with  equal  facility,  and  circu- 
late as  freely?     To  deny,  under  such  and  other  additional  facts 
that  "  are  known  and  read  of  all  men,"  that  bank  notes  are  money, 
that  they  do  make  capital,  is,  we  cannot  but  think,  with  all  due 


14 

deference,  plainly  and  simply  absurd.  If  money,  then  necessarily 
they  are  measures  of  value. 

We  have  said  that  money  is  merely  a  measure  of  value — merely 
so.  This,  in  view  ot  the  other  measures  to  which  we  have  alluded, 
and  which  in  themselves,  have  really  little  or  no  value,  may  at 
first  seem  to  be  too  narrow  and  limited  a  definition ;  for  money 
itself,  it  may  be  said,  has  value,  either  real  or  conventional.  So  it 
has  a  conventional  value,  and  that  fact,  and  that  alone,  constitutes 
or  adapts  it  to  become  a  measure  of  value.  Value  is  an  idea. 
Length,  weight  and  capacity  are  physical  properties.  It  might  as 
well  be  objected  to  the  yard  stick  that  it  has  length,  and  therefore 
is  not  a  yard  stick,  or  to  the  pound,  that  it  has  weight,  and  there- 
fore is  not  a  pound,  as  -to  money  that  it  has  value,  and  is  therefore 
more  or  less  than  a  mere  measure  of  value.  It  is  the  very  property 
of  value,  real  or  conventional,  that  makes  it  a  measure  of  value. 
And  in  the  case  of  bank  notes  even,  our  position  will  not,  we  pre- 
sume, be  disputed;  for,  except  as  money,  to  light  a  pipe  or  to  be  ap- 
plied to  a  still  more  vulgar  and  every-day  purpose,  are  certainly  all 
the  uses  to  which  they  can  be  put,  (and  we  will  certainly  be  borne 
out  in  saying  that  the  notes  of  very  many  banks  ought  never  to  ob- 
tain any  other  kind  of  use  or  circulation.)  In  the  case  of  gold  and 
silver,  as  mere  metals  for  mechanical  uses,  or  in  the  arts,  it  is,  per- 
haps, the  fact  of  their  scarcity  that  would  detract  from  their  value* 
Were  they  abundant,  they  would  doubtless  be  intrinsically  valuable. 
in  those  respects;  never,  however,  reaching  the  value  of  iron. 
They,  no  doubt,  would  make  very  good  roofing  for  houses,  &c, 
not  being  subject  to  corrosion,  or  good  sheathing  for  ships,  on 
account  of  their  resistance  of  the  action  of  salt  or  of  fresh  water; 
but  their  great  scarcity  would  necessarily  preclude  any  such  uses 
of  them.  'Tis  true,  a  high  value  is  now  attached  to  them  as  gob- 
lets to  drink  out  of,  and  as  dishes  to  ornament  a  table  and  be  eaten 
from,  &c,  and  as  ornaments  to  the  person;  but  all  this  arises  from 
their  conventional  value  as  money,  of  rwe  cannot  but  feel  that  the 
taste  or  pleasure  of  him  who  prefers  the  use  of  a  golden  or  silver 
goblet  for  his  wine  or  other  drink,  to  the  clear  and  brilliant  crystal; 
or  the  golden  dish  for  his  meats,  to  the  pure  white  porcelain,  or 
china  ware,  is  not  to  be  envied.  *  It  would  seem  that  the  value  of 
gold  and  silver  is  more  truly  ideal  the  more  we  examiue  it. 

It  is  true  that  the  use  of  paper  money  implies,  and  necessarily 


15 

t 

requires  a  fixed,  well  defined  and  settled  standard  of  value,  which, 
for  aught  we  can  now  see,  must  remain  what  it  is,  gold  or  silver,  or 
better,  perhaps,  than  either  of  them,  platina  (now  used,  it  is  said,  in 
Russia;)  letter,  because  scarcer,  and  therefore,  as  money,  lighter  and 
more  portable.  Gold  and  silver  money  being  made  and  issued, 
wherever  it  is  made,  under  governmental  authority  and  regulations, 
is  its  own  standard,  each  piece  being  the  precise  counterpart  of  every 
other  piece  of  the  same  denomination.  Why  they  have  become  to  be 
exclusively  standards  of  the  measures  of  value,  is  too  obvious  to  need 
inquiry  here.  It  is  plain,  however,  that  paper  money  being  now  used 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  amongst  the  most  commercial  nations,  the 
nation  that  could  introduce  it.  under  wise  and  proper  regulations, 
and  control,  in  the  largest  quantity — its  comparative  population 
and  uses  for  currency  being  taken  into  the  account — and  could 
exclude  from  circulation,  a  proportional  amount  of  gold  and  silver 
money,  preserving  the  standard,  however,  would  thereby  secure 
the  greatest  degree  of  steadiness  and  uniformity  in  the  prices  of 
things,  for  the  reason,  that  the  sudden  and  great  changes  and 
fluctuations,  in  the  quantity  of  its  currency,  necessarily  incident 
to  a  large  use  of  gold  and  silver  even,  might,  under  the  control 
and  guidance  of  a  wise,  provident  and  cautious  head  of  its  finan- 
cial department,  be  very  much  diminished,  if  not  prevented.  The 
argument,  therefore,  is  in  favor  of  paper  currency  (the  standard 
being  maintained)  over  a  metallic  one,  provided,  always,  it  If  "/>_ 
der  proper  control.  And  here  we  have  in  view,  prominently,  the 
great  evil — the  source,  indeed,  of  almost  all  other  evils  of  the  cur- 
rency of  the  United  States.  It  has  no  head;  is  under  no  govern- 
ment; no  control  is  exerted  over  it  or  attempted  to  be;  any  power 
in  the  General  Government  over  it  is  denied,  and  has,  indeed,  been 
repudiated  by  the  Government  itself.  The  currency  is,  therefore, 
beyond  restraint,  and  cannot  be  limited  in  amount.  Every  bank, 
to  use  a  vulgar  but  expressive  Americanism,  ':  goes  upon  its  own 
hook."  No  single  State  authority  or  action,  be  it  never  so  wise 
and  salutary,  can  be  made  to  aifect  the  currency  generally  to  any 
very  beneficial  extent.  The  States  are  too  numerous,  and  their 
views  too  diverse ;  nor  is  there  the  least  ground  to  hope  that  any 
general  concert  of  action  in  the  matter  could  ever  be  brought 
about  amongst  them .  A  single  State  might  legislate  never  so  wisely, 


16 

for  itself  upon  the  subject,  but  to  no  purpose.  Her  adjacent  sister 
States  may,  at  their  pleasure,  set  her  legislation  at  naught,  even 
within  her  own  borders.  The  union  of  the  States  implies  and 
calls  for  a  concurrence  of  legislation,  and  of  action  in  matters  of 
general  concern  and  interest.  Antagonistic  legislation  too  readily 
leads  to  action  of  the  same  character,  and  that  to  collision.  Of 
this  we  have  certainly  had  quite  enough  experience  already.  But 
no  individual  State  takes  cognizance  even  of  the  currency  of  the 
country,  for  the  reason,  perhaps,  that  she  can  exert  no  power  over 
it,  or  it  may  be  that  she  exonerates  herself  of  it,  in  favor  of  the 
General  Government.  But  the  General  Government,  in  turn, 
repudiates,  if  not  cognizance  of  it,  authority  over  it;  and  that,  in, 
the  face  of  and  against  as  plain  and  clear  constitutional  provisions 
we  cannot  but  believe,  as  can  well  be  expressed.  But  of  this  we 
shall  see  more  fully  by  and  by. 

We  conclude  here,  these,  our  premises,  by  re-asserting  briefly 

That  the  current  value  of  gold  and  silver  is  imaginary,  conven- 
tional; not  real  and  intrinsic. 

That  they  are  commercial  commodities. 

That  they  are  especially  the  money  of  our  external  or  foreign 
commerce,  and  bank  notes  of  our  internal  or  domestic  commerce. 

That  bank  notes  do  make  and  increase  capital,  and 

That  they  are  money. 

Now,  of  our  currency,  it  may  be  asserted,  we  think,  without  a 
fear  of  contradiction  from  any  intelligent  source,  that  it  is  greater 
hi  amount,  vq,  proportion  to  our  population,  and  the  extent  of  our 
agriculture,  manufactures  find  commerce,  than  that  of  any  other 
nation  in  the  world*  We  mean  to  say  that  we  have  a  greater  amount 
of  currency  per  man,  in  proportion  to  our  population,  and  the  uses 
we  have  for  money,  than  any  other  people  in  the  world.  Great 
Britain  certainly  has  less ;  France  less  than  she,  and  so  of  all  the 
nations  of  Europe.  Asia  everywhere  has  a  less  amount  of  it  than 
the  nations  of  Europe. 

Another  very  important  position  may  be  taken,  we  think,  with 
equal  confidence,  viz  :  that  our  currency  is  made  up  of  more  paper 


*  We  do  not  speak  here,  of  course,  of  those  nations  in  which  the  converti. 
bility  of  their  paper  into  gold  or  silver,  or  other  properly,  is  not  even 
thought  of.  As  in  some  of  the  South  American  States,  for  instance. 


17 

and  of  less  gold  and  silver  than  that  of  any  other  nation  in  the 
world.  We  have  no  statistics,  no  evidences  at  hand,  from  which 
either  of  these  positions  can  be  clearly  proved,  and  indeed,  if  we 
had,  we  should  not  consider  it  necessary  to  offer  them ;  beside, 
they  would  necessarily  make  voluminous  what  otherwise  we  shall 
condense  as  much  as  we  can.  Assuming  these,  then,  as  a  basis 
for  the  argument  or  remarks  that  are  to  follow,  we  shall  merely 
remark,  in  passing,  that  in  addition  to  our  gold  and  silver  coin,  we 
have  now,  in  the  United  States,  not  less  than  fifteen  hundred  banks 
and  branches,  all,  or  nearly  all  of  them,  issuing  notes,  discounting, 
&*.,  &c— each  and  all  of  them  pushing  their  paper  upon  the 
community,  with  as  little  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  currency 
of  the  country  generally,  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  no  importance; 
many,  indeed,  most  of  them,  never  once  casting  a  glance  abroad  to 
observe  the  condition  of  the  currency  there,  and  indeed  many  of 
them  totally  unconscious  of  the  very  deleterious  consequences  that 
must  necessarily  result  to  us  from  the  great  comparative  excess  of 
currency  here  over  that  of  foreign  countries  with  which  we  are  in 
intimate  commercial  intercourse.  That  there  are  amongst  the 
banks  high  and  exemplary  exceptions  to  these  remarks,  we  knows 
and  are  quite  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the  number  of  them  is 
far  beyond  the  extent  of  our  knowledge.  Still,  the  general  fact, 
are  as  stated. 

Well,  if  the  positions  I  have  taken  be  tenable,  what  must  be 
the  natural,  the  necessary,  the  inevitable  results  of  them  ?  What 
under  the  laws  that  govern  in  the  exchange  of  commercial  com. 
modities?  What,  under  the  rules  above  suggested,  that  necessarily 
grow  out  of  the  relative  abundance  and  scarcity  of  things  ?  What, 
indeed,  has  our  almost  constant  experience,  from  the  establishment 
of  the  government  down  to  the  fall  of  1857,  and  thence  even  to 
this  day,  proved  to  be  the  results  of  them?  Higher  prices  here, 
of  course,  for  every  thing  than  elsewhere.  Higher  prices  fur 
labor — hence  the  influx  upon  us  of  so  many  laboring  men,  artisans, 
&c.  Higher  prices  for  our  agriculture,  for  our  manufactures,  and 
for  the  conducting  of  our  commerce,  internal  as  well  as  external. 
Indeed,  it  is  as  necessary  that  these  consequences  should  result 
from  the  facts  stated  as  that  water  should  flow  down  hill.  That 
there  are  exceptions  to  these  results  we  freely  admit;  as  land  for 
agricultural  purposes  in  the  great  west,  and   in   other  sparsely 


18 

settled  parts  of  the  country.  The  cereals,  also,  very  generally  so; 
but  these  and  other  exceptions  of  the  like  kind  arise  from  the 
great  relative  superabundance  of  them  over  our  currency,  even  as 
it  is.  We  are  very  much  inclined,  however,  to  the  belief,  that 
were  our  currency  reduced  to  the  proper  relative  amount  compared 
with  that  of  Great  Britain,  that  our  cereals  would  find  a  constant 
market  there,  to  a  very  considerable  extent.  There  are,  too,  in 
certain  other  cases,  causes  that  go  to  counteract  these  higher  prices, 
and  very  much  to  modify  them,  insomuch,  indeed,  as,  in  some  in- 
stances, to  make  them  exceptions  to  the  general  results  above 
stated.  Take  the  case  of  a  laboring  man,  for  instance.  He  is  at 
the  age  of  discretion,  and  of  some  degree  of  reflection ;  he  has 
arrived  upon  our  shores  from  a  state  of  villienage  or  serfdom 
almost  ;  finds  himself  here  a  freeman ;  gets  high  wages,  higher 
much  than  he  has  ever  received  in  his  native  country  ;  meets  it 
may  be.  with  an  old  acquaintance,  or  comrade,  or  relative,  perhaps, 
who  has  been  in  the  country  some  years,  and  who,  by  his  in. 
dustry,  economy,  &c,  has  acquired  the  means  of  living  comforta- 
bly and  respectably  ;  has  become  a  citizen,  a  freeholder,  a  voter, 
in  fact.  Will  these  things  produce  no  effect  upon  the  laboring 
man,  if  he  be  a  man?  Will  they  not  urge  him  on,  stimulate  him 
to  greater  exertions  ?  In  which  country  is  it  probable  he  would 
do  the  most  labor  in  a  day — work  with  more  spirit,  with  better 
will — in  the  one  from  which  he  has  migrated,  or  in  this?  Then, 
too,  in  agriculture,  we  have  our  labor-saving  machinery,  the  best 
and  most  efficient  in  the  world;  and  our  abundance  of  new,  rich 
and  cheap  lands;  our  manufactures,  our  machinery,  our  mechanical 
and  constantly  producing  ingenuity,  ever  on  the  alert  to  invent, 
adopt  and  improve.  In  commere,  our  skilfully  constructed,  well 
provided,  thoroughly  manned,  and  very  swift  navy.  Doubtless 
these  things  do  go,  in  many  instances,  very  far  toward  reducing 
those  higher  prices.  We  will  freely  admit,  for  instance,  that  the 
men  of  Connecticut  can  make  a  good  clock,  and  afford  to  sell  it 
for  a  less  price  than  any  other  people  in  the  world ;  but  this  is  a 
result  of  their  ingenuity,  of  their  peculiar  machinery  for  the  pur- 
pose. They  are  thereby  enabled  to  do  it  in  spite  of  the  facts,  that 
they  pay  more  for  the  labor,  more  for  the  metals  used,  and  more 
for  the  wood  than  is  paid  for  them  in  other  countries ;  but  it  is  in 
that,  as  in  most  other  cases  of  the   kind  that  might  be  cited,  in 


19 

which  downright,  persevering  mechanical  skill  is  industriously  and 
economically  brought  into  operation.  It  must  ultimately  prevail- 
But  the  general  fact  remains  as  above  stated.  We  pay  higher  / 
prices  for  every  thing  than  are  paid  elsewhere,  and  the  reason  for 
it  is  too  obvious  to  admit  of  a  doubt.  We  have  more  money  ;  more 
currency  in  proportion  to  the  uses  we  put  it  to,  and  to  our  popu- 
lation, than  any  other  people  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  and 
the  uses  they  make  of  it.  Without  the  accompanying  qualifica- 
tion,  the  position  would  not  of  course  be  a  sound  one.  There  are 
people  who  Lave  little  agriculture,  no  manufactures,  and  no  com- 
merce, but  who  have  money,  gold  and  silver  j  and  they  being 
natural  products  of  the  earth  they  occupy,  they  may,  at  times, 
have  them  in  excess,  and  above  the  currency  of  the  rest  of  the 
world;  and  whenever  that  occurs,  their  prices  are  increased  pro. 
portionally  until  their  gold  and  silver,  their  staples,  have  been  so 
far  gotten  rid  of  as  to  cause  a  reduction  of  prices.  They  must, 
then,  if  they  wish  a  continuation  of  imports  from  other  countries, 
go  to  work  at  their  mines  again ;  must  produce  more  gold  and 
silver — replenish — and  as  certainly  as  they  do,  just  so  certainly, 
other  things  remaining  somewhat  in  '•  statu  quo."  will  they  be  in  the 
receipt  of  imports  again.  It  may  be  that  their  gold  and  silver  are 
constantly  in  excess;  in  that  case,  their  imports  will  be  constant, 
and  they  the  gainers  thereby,  or  not  the  losers,  because  gold  and 
silver  are  their  staple  commodities ;  their  proper  and  legitimate 
exports.  They  produce  and  manufacture  them,  but  having  no 
uses  for  them,  comparatively,  the  same  effect  is  produced  amongst 
such  a  people  with  respect  to  prices  as  exists  amongst  us,  without, 
however,  the  very  serious  and  terrible  consequences  to  them,  that 
we  so  often  experience  from  the  use  of  our  currency.  "We  go  on 
in  the  use  of  our  mixed  currency;  indifferent  to,  and  regardless  of 
the  escape  of  gold  and  silver  from  amongst  us,  until  suddenly  the 
fact  bursts  upon  us,  that  they  are  gone;  gone  to  pay  our  foreign 
indebtedness,  and  to  some  considerable  amount,  absorbed  in  the 
creation  of  new  banks.  Our  banks  refuse  to  discount;  get  in  what 
specie  they  can,  a  panic  seizes  us,  and  away  we  go.  Oue  failure 
produces  half  a  dozen  more ;  credit  has  been  infinitely  extended, 
every  thing  rests  upon  promises  to  pay.  They  make  our  currency 
in  fact.  Gold  and  silver  can't  be  procured  immediately;  what  of  it 
that  has  not  gone  abroad,  is  locked  up  by  common  consent;  in  some 


20 

cases,  by  a  dispensation  from  the  Legislature,  perhaps;  and  there 
being  no  alternative,  a  general  cancellation  of  promises  takes  place 
upon  the  best  terms  to  be  had,  and  debtors  are  let  free  to  begin 
again.  In  time  a  little  gold  and  silver  are  gathered  in  again.  The 
necessities  of  the  country  demand  supplies.  Trade  begins  to  revive, 
confidence  to  be  restored.  The  banks  begin  to  discount  again, 
each  one  issuing,  without  regard  to,  and  many  of  them — most  of 
them,  indeed — in  utter  ignorance  of,  and  indifference  to,  the  con- 
dition of  the  currency.  Soon  another  flood  of  paper  is  produced ; 
our  imports  become  larger  than  ever  before;  extravagance,  the 
order  of  the  day — promises  to  pay  as  rife  as  ever  before — our  gold 
and  silver  gradually  leave  us  again — another  discovery  of  their 
great  scarcity,  compared  with  our  paper  currency,  is  made,  and 
the  catastrophe  is  re-produced.  Who  that  has  lived  the  half  of 
three  score  years  and  ten  has  not  witnessed  it  again  and  again  ? 

And  but  for  that  very  important  and  valuable  staple  of  the 
Southern  States,  any  one  of  these  catastrophes  would  be,  and  would 
have  been,  irreparable.  But,  fortunately,  we  are  the  producers  of 
cotton  in  great  quantity ;  the  largest  producers  of  it,  in  proportion 
to  the  number  engaged  in  cultivating  it,  in  the  world.  The  soil  and 
climate  in  which  it  may  be  grown  here  are  very  extensive.  The 
soil  is  only  partially  occupied,  and  may  be  had  at  low  prices.  The 
demand  for  the  product  in  Europe,  with  the  addition  of  our  home 
demand,  are  together  quite  equal  to  the  quantity  produced.  The 
prices  of  it  have  been,  and  are,  not  only  remunerative,  but  gene- 
rally profitable.  The  domestic  commerce  between  the  Northern 
and  cotton  producing  States  has  always  been  favorable  to  the 
former.  They  have  been  the  carriers  of  the  cotton  to  Europe,  as 
well  as  to  their  own  States,  whereby  the  profits  derived  from  it 
have  been  very  much  divided  between  the  two  sections  of  country, 
and  these,  added  to  the  profits  of  the  Northern  States  upon  their 
imports,  much  of  which  have  been  sold  to  the  cotton-growing 
States,  as  also  are  much  of  the  manufactures  of  the  Northern 
States,  have  made  them  very  large  participators  in  the  profits  de- 
rived from  cotton ;  which  profits  have  been  applied  toward  the 
extinguishment  of  their  foreign  indebtedness.  Tobacco  may  be 
placed  with  cotton  in  this  respect,  but  to  a  much  less  amount;  so 
may  naval  stores;  so  may  canal  and  rail  road  shares,  State  bonds, 


21 

corporation  bonds,  &c,  to  some  extent.  But  these  things,  although 
closely  connected  with  our  subject,  need  not  be  dwelt  upon. 

It  is  in  view  of  the  effect  of  our  currency  upon  our  tariff  of 
duties  upon  imports  that  the  subject  becomes  most  interesting  and 
important,  and  here  we  would  ask  the  experience  of  commercial 
men,  when,  since  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812,  had  we  the  most 
efficient  tariff  upon  imports;  a  tariff  the  most  prohibitory  and 
unproductive.  We  think  we  will  be  borne  out  by  every  commer. 
cial  man  of  experience  in  pointing  to  the  year  1842.  And,  yet, 
that  was  not  a  tariff  laid  by  Congress,  nor  by  any  direct  or  imme- 
diate act  of  our  government,  but  by  the  facts  that  the  banks  had 
called  in  their  paper,  had  ceased  to  discount,  and  were  in  a  condi- 
tion to  exhibit,  generally,  something  like  what  the  banks  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  exclusive  of  the  city,  did  actually,  in  the 
aggregate,  exhibit,  to-wit,  eleven  dollars  in  specie  in  their  vaults 
for  every  dollar  they  had  in  paper  in  circulation.  We  trust  to 
memory  in  making  this  statement  of  their  condition  in  New  York, 
and  have  so  often  recurred  to  it,  that  we  feel  a  confidence  in 
making  it.  Be  it,  as  it  may,  however,  there  was  at  any  rate,  a 
very  great  excess  of  specie  over  paper  with  them,  as  well  as  with 
those  of  the  city  and  the  country  generally  j  and  as  a  necessary 
and  inevitable  consequence  of  it,  we  ceased  "pro  tempore,"  to  be 
importers;  no  foreign  goods  came  to  our  shores — nay.  more  foreign 
goods  that  had  been  imported,  was  actually  exported  by  us  in  some 
instances,  and  sold  when  and  where  they  could  be.  Hire  there 
was  no  market  for  them.  There  was  comparatively  no  money,  no 
currency.  We  have  cited  this  instance  merely  by  way  of  illustra- 
tion. The  condition  of  things  in  '42,  was  by  no  means  a  desira- 
ble one — far  otherwise.  We  hope  we  may  never  see  the  like  again. 
We  wish  to  show  that  a  tariff  of  duties  upon  imports  cannot,  un- 
less, indeed,  it  be  prohibitory,  and  intended  to  be  so,  be  made 
thoroughly  efficient  according  to  the  meaning  and  intent  of  Con- 
gress, without  the  use  of  the  currency  as  a  means  of  doing  it.  In 
other  words,  that  it  is  only  through  the  currency  that  an  effectual 
tariff  can  be  laid  in  this  country.  Every  reduction  of  our  cur- 
rency goes  to  increase  the  existing  tariff,  and  every  increase  of 
currency  goes  to  reduce  it,  and  this  will  be  found  to  be  true,  though 
not  precisely  to  the  same  extent,  whether  the  duties  be  specific  or 
ad  valorem'here,  or  ad  valorem  at  the  place  of  export.  The  greater 


22 

comparative  amount  of  currency  here  must  produce  higher  prices. 
The  less  amount  of  it  would  necessarily  beget  lower  prices. 

In  all  of  Europe,  we  think,  it  may  be  said  with  safety,  that  the 
different  governments  have,  respectively,  more  or  less  control  of 
their  currency;  or,  if  any  of  them  be  not  actually  vested  with  that 
control,  they  yet  exert  it  in  an  admonitory  way.  Would  to  God 
that  it  were  so  in  either,  or  in  any  sense  with  owe  country  and 
government,  and  until  it  shall  have  become  so,  by  some  means, 
we  must  continue  to  be  the  victims,  nationally,  as  well  as  indi- 
vidually. Take,  for  example,  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain; 
Congress  lay  a  tariff  of  duties  upon  her  exports  to  this  country, 
whereupon  Great  Britain  reduces,  as  she  readily  can,  through  the 
bank  of  England,  the  amount  of  her  currency,  which,  like  ours, 
is  a  mixed  one,  though  partaking  much  more  largely  than  ours 
does  of  gold  and  silver.  Our  currency  is,  on  the  other  hand,  on 
the  increase.  Now,  what  of  our  tariff?  No  matter  whether  the 
duties  under  it  be  specific  or  ad  valorem  here,  or  ad  valorem  there, 
(duties  laid  ad  valorem  here  would,  we  admit,  counteract  the  result 
in  a  measure.)  Why,  our  tariff  is  avoided,  circumvented  and  set 
at  naught  almost,  we  aiding  and  assisting — nay,  actually  doing  the 
work  ourselves,  against  ourselves,  by  a  continual  increase  of  our 
currency,  and  even  of  the  number  of  our  banks.  Will  it  be  said 
that  Great  Britain  does  not,  in  fact,  and  could  not  if  she  were  so 
inclined,  thus  reduce  her  currency.  That  to  do  so  would  carry 
distress  a#d  ruin  to  the  manufacturers.  Why,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  she  manufactures  greatly  in  excess  of  her  domestic 
wants,  and  that  that  excess  must  be  disposed  of.  To  hold  on  to 
it  would  be  worse  for  her  manufacturers  than  to  sell  it  even  below 
the  cost  of  manufacturing  it.  The  one  course  would  be  totally 
unproductive,  so  long  as  it  might  be  persisted  in ;  whereas,  the 
other  would  produce  something,  though  there  might  be  a  loss  by 
it.  Besides,  the  manufacturing  population  of  Great  Britain  (we 
mean,  now,  the  operatives)  are  not  only  very  numerous,  but  are 
the  most  dependent  population  of  the  kingdom  outside  of  the  poor 
houses — an(i  if  in  the  matter  of  a  reduction  of  the  currency,  the 
questions  of  losses  to  the  manufacturers,  or  of  the  stoppage  of  the 
factories,  and  the  consequent  throwing  out  of  employment  of  the 
operatives,  should  present  themselves,  it  is  easy  to  see  which  way 


13 


the  Government  would  incline.     But  unfortunately  for  us,  the 
necessity  for  so  acting  is  seldom,   if  ever,  imposed  upon  Great 
Britain.     She  seldom  need  interfere  with  her  currency  in  order  to 
bring  about  the  results  we  have  been  speaking  of.    She  need  only 
(and  she  well  knows  it)  stand  still,  wait,  look  at  what  we  are  doing*. 
We  will  soon  have  done  the  work  for  her.     A  few  more  banks, 
.    a  little  more  specie,  a  consequent  increase   of  bank  notes,  a  good 
crop  of  cotton  or  the  appearance  of  it,  will  soon  bring  about  an 
inflated  currency,  and  thereby  open  the  way  for  her.    She  may  ex- 
port hither  freely  again.     We  want  her  fine  goods,  and  the  more 
costly  they  are  the  better  we  like  them.  We  have  plenty  of  money, 
and  if  we  want  more,  the  banks  can  easily  issue  it,  and  if  they  do 
not  wish  to  do  so,  why,  we  can  easily  make  some  new  ones.     Our 
country-  is  a  great  hot-bed  for  banks.    One  will  take  root  and  shoot 
in  anight,  come  up  in  the  morning,  and  by  noon  be  fully  expanded. 
We  are  forcibly  reminded  here  of  an  anecdote  for  which  we  be- 
lieve there  was  much  more  foundation  in  truth  than  in  fiction.  The 
Cashier  of  a  bank  that  had  been  doing  a  reckless  business,  found 
it  necessary,  at  last,  to  elo.sc  its  doors  during  banking  hours,  and 
as  in  duty  bound,  went  to  the  President  who,  fur  the  day,  was  con- 
fined to  his  house  by  reason  of  a  slight  cold  he  bad  taken.     The 
Cashier  very  demurely,   and  with  a  long  drawn  and  very  lugu- 
brious face,  communicated  to  him  (the  President)  the  fact  thathe 
had  just  closed  the  doors  of  the  bank.    Closed— the— doors— of— 
the— bank— at— this— time— of— day!     Why,  what  on  earth  do 
you  do  that  for?  exclaimed  the  President.     Why,  Mr.  President, 
replied  the  Cashier,  the  fact  is,  the  bank  has  failed;  we've  got  no 
money.     Got— no— money— sir  !     Why,  have  not  I  been  signing 
notes  as  fast  as  I  could,   almost  night  and  day,   for  weeks  ?  re° 
sponded  the  President,  and  yet  you  say  you  have  no  money— how 
can   that  be,   sir?     It  is  needless  to  say  that  that  bank  remained 
closed  and  never  opened  its  doors  again,  except,  I  believe,  to  the 
Sheriff,  who  found  it  a  perfect  vacuum,  within,  as  regarded  money 
or  property  of  any  kind,  and  that  the  banking  house  belonged  to 
a  private  individual— we  think,  one  of  the  Directors.     It°never 
paid  One  cent  on  the  dollar  of  its  notes. 

To  enact  tariffs,  to  alter,  modify,   amend,  repeal  and  re-enact 
them,  has  been  a  staple  business  of  Congress  for  mure  than  forty 


years.  The  object  of  it  lias  been  to  throw  taxation  into  the  shade, 
as  it  were ;  to  endeavor  to  hide  it  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  people.  And  so  effectually  has  this  been  done, 
that  the  belief  is  by  many  entertained  and  persisted  in,  that  the 
import  duties  are  actually  paid  by  the  foreign  manufacturers;  that 
our  Government  actually  derives  the  greater  part  of  its  support 
from  those  duties  thus  paid ;  that  we  are,  in  fact,  in  that  respect, 
"  quartering  upon  the  enemy."  A  greater  fallacy  can't  well  be  ima- 
gined. They  (the  duties)  must  fall  upon  the  consumers  or  last 
purchasers  of  the  wares  imported,  or  some  one  through  whose 
hands  they  have  passed  must  have  sold  them  at  a  loss.  This  may, 
and  we  admit,  doe's  sometimes  occur,  but  by  no  means  so  frequently 
as  to  detract  from  the  generality  of  the  rule,  that  the  consumer  or 
last  purchaser  pays  the  duties.  But  this  is  too  plain  to  need 
argument. 

What  we  wish  to  hold  up  to  view,  is ,  that  our  superabundant  cur- 
rency, by  the  comparatively  high  prices  it  leads  us  to  pay,  enables 
the  European  manufacturer  to  send  hither  his  wares  and  sell  them 
at  a  profit — the  cost  of  transportation,  the  time  lost  in  effecting 
it,  the  tariff,  insurance,  risk,  commissions,  &c,  &c,  notwithstand- 
ing. And  what  does  he  take  in  payment  for  them  ?  Gold  and  silver, 
or  cotton,  or  tobacco,  or  perhaps  naval  stores.  Cotton  or  tobacco,  or 
naval  stores  at  our  prices — at  our  valuation  of  them  ?  Oh,  no.  If 
he  did  so,  there  would  be  no  reason  for  complaint.  That  would 
make  it  a  much  better  business  for  us.  We  say,  not  at  ours,  for  who 
fixes  the  prices  of  those  articles  ?  Not  we,  certainly.  Where  are 
they  fixed  ?  Unfortunately  for  us,  always  and  altogether  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  where  their  limited  currencies,  and  not 
our  expanded  one,  furnish  the  measure  of  value.  They  sell  us 
their  wares,  the  cost  of  which  to  them  is  measured  by  their  cur- 
rency, with  the  addition  to  that  cost,  of  the  duties  under  our 
tariff;  of  the  cost  of  transportation,  interest,  insurance,  &c,  and 
a  fair  profit,  measured  by  our  currency,  and  take  our  cotton,  e.  g., 
in  payment,  at  prices  measured  by  their  currency  again,  or  else 
they  take  our  gold  and  silver  coin  by  weight.  The  game,  in  other 
words,  is  altogether  in  their  hands,  and  we  stand  passively  looking 
on,  rejoicing  and  congratulating  ourselves  upon  our  prosperity, 
and  with  reason  may  we,  indeed,  do  so.     For  our  prosperity,  if  it 


30 


may  be  so  called,  is  actually  in  spite  of  our  policy. *  But,  perhaps, 
we  have  not  been  sufficiently  explicit.  It  may  be  asked,  what  •' 
don't  we  fix  our  own  prices  for  our  own  cotton  ?  No,  inquirer,  who- 
ever you  may  be — our  home  demand  for  it  does  not  enable  us  to 
do  that.  The  annual  crop  is  greatly  in  excess  of  our  domestic 
demand  for  it.  The  prices  for  it  must  therefore  depend  entirely 
upon  the  foreign  demand.  80  it  has  been  ever  since  it  began  to  be 
produced  here,  and  so  it  must  continue  to  be  until  wiser  counsels 
prevail.  "We  plant  it.  we  cultivate,  pick  it,  gin  it,  pack  it,  and 
transport  it  to  market  under  our  high  prices  for  every  thing  we  do 
to  it  and  with  it,  and  then  the  foreign  purchasers  take  it  at  the 
low  prices  which  their  comparatively  limited  currency  will  justify 
them  in  paying  for  it.  and  then,  forsooth,  make  payment  for  much, 
most  of  it  indeed,  in  their  wares  as  above  stated,  and  the  very 
growers  of  this  cotton  are,  perhaps,  nay,  in  very  many  instances, 
and  to  a  great  extent,  are  C(  rtainty  the  last  purchasers  or  consumers 
of  those  wares,  and  upon  them  it  falls  to  pay  the  tariff  duties ;  and 
all  this  by  reason  of  an  inflated,  aye,  bloated,  unwise,  unequal  and 
unconstitutional  currency.  But  how,  after  all,  perhaps,  asks  the 
cotton-grower,  is  the  desired  change  of  prices  in  our  favor  to  be 
effected  ?  We  must,  under  any  circumstances,  he  says,  depend  upon 
the  foreign  demand  for  our  cotton,  the  reduction  of  our  currency 
notwithstanding.  So  you  must,  indeed,  we  admit  5  but  do  you  not 
see  that  the  reduction  of  our  currency  will  not  only  enable  you  to 
produce  and  get  to  market  your  cotton  at  very  considerably  less 
cost  to  you,  but  that  you  will,  also,  in  consequence  thereof,  be 
enabled  to  purchase  goods  for  which  you  now  pay  so  extravagantly, 
at  much  lower  prices  also?  So,  too,  the  tobacco-grower;  and  so. 
indeed,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  doubtless,  the  growers  of 
corn,  wheat,  &c,  and  the  producers  of  beef,  pork,  tec.  'Tis  our 
currency;  our  currency,  inflated  to  bursting,  and,  nlas!  too  often 
actually  bursting,  that  keeps  us  out  of  European  markets  with 
much  of  our  surplus  products;  that  puts  us,  commercially,  at  the 
feet  of  Great  Britain  and  other  European  countries,  and  will  keep 


« 
*  How  or  why  we  have  gone  on  and  prospered  to  the  extent  we  have, 
under  such  a  condition  of  things,  is  a  very  interesting  inquiry,  not  by 
any  means  difficult  of  a  satisfactory  solution,  but  involving  too  many 
considerations  t<>  be  made  a  subject  of  this  paper 
1 


us  there,  until  Government,  here,  shall  have  assumed  a  control  over 
it  as  other  commercial  countries  have  over  theirs,  and  shall  have 
begun  to  exercise  the  wise  and  prudent  management  of  it,  that  is 
so  conspicuous  with  them.  Commercial  nations  who  use  a  mixed 
currency,  must  have  an  eye  upon  each  other's  financial  operations 
and  conditions,  and  act  with  direct  reference  to  them.  We  have 
been  the  victims,  are  now,  because  no  such  attention  has  been 
kept  up  by  us;  and,  indeed,  if  it  had  bfren,  we  have  regarded  our- 
selves as  powerless  to  effect  the  necessary  change  in  our  currency. 
'Tis  easy  to  see  that  were  it  wholly  metallic,  no  such  care  need  be 
exercised,  for  gold  and  silver  are  commercial  commodities,  the 
value  of  which  is  known  and  recognized  throughout  the  world. 
They  are  the  currency  of  the  world — not  so  bank  notes.  They, 
from  their  nature,  must  be  confined  to  the  country  and  people 
that  authorize  and  permit  the  use  of  them.  They  have  not  the 
ear-marks  above  spoken  of,  that  belong  to  gold  and  silver,  and 
away  from  home  are  not  known  and  are  of  no  value. 

Well,  having  thus  cursorily  glanced  at  some  of  the  evils  of  our 
currency — can  they  be  remedied,  and  if  so,  by  whom  and  how '( 

The  two  first  branches  of  this  inquiry  will  be  considered  under 
the  proposition, 

That  Congress  clearly  have  the  power,  by  the  Constitution,  to 
devise  and  apply  the  remedy. 

That  the  power-  to  establish,  regulate  and  control  the  currency, 
is  a  necessary  and  essential  attribute  of  sovereignty,  was  never, 
perhaps,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world,  more  forcibly  exhibited 
than  it  was  in  this  country  during  the  time  of  our  revolution. 
Each  State  or  Colony  that  chose  so  to  do,  (and  we  believe  they  all 
did)  then  coined  for  itself  and  issued,  "ad  libitum,"  of  paper 
money,  fixed  what  value  it  pleased  upon  foreign  coin,  and  made 
its  own  coin,  of  any  weight,  or  value,  or  shape,  or  impression  it 
pleased  to  do.  It  is  needless  to  say  a  word  about  the  inconve- 
niences of  their  coin,  and  the  entire  worthlesness  of  their  paper 
currency — continental  currency,  became  a  by-word  and  a  reproach . 
and  every  body  has  heard  of  it.  The  war  having  been  brought  to 
a  close  by  us,  the  confederation  was  entered  into,  in  which  "  the 
sole  and  exclusive  right  and  power  of  regulating  the  alloy  and 
value  of  coin,"  was  distinctly,  in  those  words,  conferred  upon  Con- 
gress. Each  State  surrendered  all  its  powers  in  that  respect,  with 


27 

the  single  provision,  (a  very  singular  one  by  the  by)  that  "  Congress 
shall  not  coin  money,  nor  regulate  the  value  thereof,  nor  emit 
bills,  unless  nine  States  assent  to  the  same."  So,  also,  the  i*ighfc 
to  emit  bills  of  credit,  was,  by  the  articles  of  confederation,  con- 
ferred upon  Congress.  It  was  very  properly  regarded  as  a  power 
equivalent  to.  parallel  with,  and  necessarily  resulting  from,  the 
power  to  borrow  money — whence  the  expression  used  in  those 
articles:  "To  borrow  money,  or  emit  bills  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States."  True,  the  States  did  not.  in  express  words,  restrain 
themselves  respectively  from  emitting  bills,  but  without  so  doin; .  j 
acted  under  the  idea  and  conviction,  that  the  whole  power  so  to  do 
Went  with  their  grant  o(  it.  and  properly  belonged  to  sovereignty 
And  this  action,  on  their  part,  was  not  the  result,  of  mere  theory 
upon  the  subject.  They  had  tried  it,  had  emitted  bills,  and  were 
well  aware  that  large  amounts  of  those  bills  were  then  still  out- 
standing, unredeemed,  and  more  than  likely  to  remain  so.  They 
Bayr  clearly,  and  were  in  the  full  experience  at  the  time,  of  the 
impolicy,  the  inconvenience  of  each  of  the  States  coining  money 
and  emitting  bills,  without  concert  with  her  sister  States,  ancS 
therefore,  jealous  as  they  were  unquestionably  of  their  States' 
rights,  conferred  those  powers  upon  Congress.  It  was  a  natural 
and  necessary  result  of  all  their  experience  in  coining,  and  in 
emitting  bills,  so  to  do  The  confederation  came  into  existence, 
and  although  the  States  were  impoverished,  and  money  exceed- 
ingly scarce,  no  State  undertook,  or  talked,  or  thought  of  creating 
a  bank,  or  of  emitting  its  own  bills  of  credit,  or  of  conferring  upon 
others  the  power  to  emit  them  ;  but  Congress  finding  it  absolutely 
necessary  to  have  a  financial  agent,  for  the  use  and  convenience 
of  the  Government,  chartered  the  Bank  of  North  America,  in 
Philadelphia,  the  only  bank  then,  and  until  after  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  we  believe,  in  the  United  States.  Strange  that 
the  power  of  the  Government  to  charter  a  bank,  and  the  want  of 
such  a  power,  in  the  respective  States,  so  clearly  exhibited  by  no 
one  of  them  actually  doing  or  even  proposing  to  do  it,  should  so 
soon  afterward,  not  only  be  called  in  question,  but  actually  reversed, 
the  powers  of  Congress,  in  that  respect,  remaining  substantially 
the  same  toa. 

Well,  the  confederation  ran  its  race,  and  the  present  constitu- 
tion was  adopted,  the  only  bank  yet  in  existence,  being  the  one 


28 

chartered  by  Congress,  at  Philadelphia,  and  very  much  the  same 
provisions  about  coining,  emitting  bills,  &c.,  were  adopted  into  the 
Constitution,  with  an  express  prohibition  against  the  States  doing 
either  of  them.  Indeed,  it  may  almost  be  said,  that  no  powers 
that  had  been  conferred  upon  Congress,  by  the  articles  of  confede- 
ration, were  taken  away  or  withheld  from  the  Government  by  the 
Constitution,  but,  on  the  contrary,  very  important  additional  pow- 
ers were  conferred ;  indeed,  that  was  the  primary  and  important, 
and,  in  fact,  necessary  object  in  resorting  to  the  Constitution. 
True,  the  power  to  emit  bills,  which  was  expressed  in  the  articles 
of  confederation  as  synonimous  with  that  of  borrowiug  money 
(above  quoted,)  is  not  expressed  in  the  Constitution,  and  no  doubt 
for  the  very  reason  that  the  one  necessarily  implies  the  other. 
The  power  "  to  borrow  money  on  the  credit  ot  the  United  States," 
is,  by  the  Constitution,  conferred  upon  the  General  Government, 
in  so  many  words,  and  the  power  to  make  and  issue  some  evidence 
of  indebtedness  to  the  lender  or  lenders  of  the  money,  must  neces- 
sarily result  from  it,  for,  without  something  of  the  kind,  it  would 
have  been  scarcely  supposable  that  even  Congress  could  borrow 
money,  and  nothing  of  the  kind,  certainly,  could  be  less  objection- 
able than  bills  of  credit.  Can,  then,  it  may  be  well  asked,  the 
power  of  the  General  Government  to  "emit bills"  be  questioned? 
And  by  what  means,  it  may  also  be  well  asked,  has  that  power 
gotten  into  the  hands  of  the  several  States,  and  that,  too,  in  the 
opinions  of  many  men,  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  any  right  in  the 
General  Government  to  emit  them  I  Against  the  States  doing  it, 
there  is  an  express  prohibition  in  the  Constitution.  "No  State  shall 
emit  bills  of  credit;"  and  how,  under  the  principle,  "qui  facit  per 
alium  facit  per  se"  a  principle  as  old,  certainly,  as  the  Roman 
Law,  and  quite  as  sound  as  it  is  old,  a  State  can  be  admitted  to  be 
capable  of  delegating,  or  communicating  a  power  which  it  has  not — 
which  it  has  expressly  surrendered,  transferred,  in  fact,  is  a  question 
which  seems  to  us  to  admit  of  but  one  answer. 

To  proceed.  "Congress,"  says  the  Constitution,  "shall  have 
the  power  to  coin  money,  regulate  the  value  thereof,  and  of  for- 
eign coin."  However  definite  the  expression  "to  coin  money/' 
may  be  claimed  to  be,  yet  that  of  "to  regulate  the  value  of  coin" 
must  be  admitted  to  be  a  broader  and  more  indefinite  expression. 
It  certainly  means  more  than  merely  to  fix  the  value  of  coin,  as  to 


29 


say  of  a  cent,   this  is  the   hundredth   part  of  a  dollar— of  half  a 
dollar,  this  is  fifty  cents,  or  of  a  dollar,  this  is  an  hundred  cents- 
That  would  be  merely  to  announce  or  to  fix  their  value  respectively 
but  to  "regulate,"  implies  a  larger  or  more  extended  action  and 
power  over  them.     It,  we  think,   fairly  implies  the  adoption  of 
some  rule  of  valuation,  the  coining  of  them  by  that  rule,  and  the 
following  of  them  up,  and  keeping  them  to  that  rule.     After  Con- 
gress  have  said  of  a  dollar,  for  instance,  this  is  an  hundred  cents 
to  regulate  it,  means  to  keep  it  so,  to  keep  it  to  the  rule  of  valua- 
tion. A  power  beyond  that  of  merely  ascertaining  and  fixin-  the 
value  of  coin,  was  necessary.     It  was  well  known  and  understood 
at  the  time,  that  the  weights  and  composition  of  coin  had  under- 
gone  frequent  and  great  changes.     That,  for  instance,  what  was 
then,  and  is  now,  in  Great  Britain,  equal  to  five  dollars,  or  a  little 
less,  of  our  silver  coin,  was  originally,  in  that  kingdom,  a  pound 
of  silver,  or  more  than  three  times  as  much  as  it  is  now',  whence 
the  denomination  in  her  currency  of  -pound,"  abbreviated  into 
£1.     But  the  thing  is  very  fairly  and  fully  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  our  eagle,  or  $10  gold  piece,  which,  not  many  years  since  was 
by  authority  of  Congress,  actually  reduced,  in  value,  some  'sixty 
odd  cents,  they  directing  it  thereafter  to  be  made  that  much  lighter 
The  eagle  had,  in  consequence  of  the  disparity  i„  value,  between  it 
and  the  silver  coin  in  circulation,  appreciated,  to  the  value  of  ten 
dollars- and  sixty  odd  cents,   and   Congress,   with  the  unanimous 
approbation  of  the  whole  country,  of  course,  -regulated"  it,  brought 
it  to  tbe  true  rule,  and  had  it  been  a  case  of  depreciation,  to  that 
or  any   less  or  greater  extent,  no  one,  in  his  senses,  would  have 
questioned  the  right,  or  power,  or  duty  of  Congress  to  have  directed 
it  to  be  brought  up  to  the  standard  or  rule,  by  adding  to  its  weight- 
to  have  regulated  it  in  other  words.     The  weight  of  the  piece   at 
the  time  it  was  fixed,  and  its  value  announced,  was,  we  think, 
right,  but  a  change  m  the  comparative  value  of  gold  and  silver 
coin  made  it  necessary  for  Congress  to  regulate  the  value  of  the 
gold  piece.     Here,  then,  we  have  a  practical  exposition,  by  Con- 
gress of  the  word  to  «  regulate,"  as  applied  to  the  value  of  coin 
and  that  exposition  will,  of  course,  we  presume,  be  admitted  to  hold 
good,  whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  the  appreciation  or  deprecia- 
tion, or  other  irregularity,  in  the  value  of  coin. 


30 

The  question  then  presents  itself  distinctly :  does  the  issue  of 
bank  notes  depreciate  the  value  of  coin  ?  Is  it  the  natural,  the 
legitimate,  the  necessary  effect  of  them  so  to  do  ?  If  so,  then 
clearly  Congress  have  the  power  to  regulate  it.  How  ?  Not,  cer- 
tainly, by  changes  in  the  weights  or  composition  of  the  coin,  that 
would  keep  more  than  twenty  mints  at  work;  indeed,  it  would  be 
impossible,  with  any  number  of  mints,  to  do  it.  The  "milling" 
of  coin,  highly  as  it  has  been  improved,  must  yet  fall  far  behind 
the  rapidity  of  engraving  and  printing.  But  just  here,  some  one 
may,  nay,  thousands  we  know,  will  persist  in  saying,  that  the  issue 
of  bank  notes  does  not,  in  fact,  depreciate  the  value  of  coin.  That 
an  ounce  of  our  gold,  or  of  our  silver  is,  notwithstanding  our  paper 
money,  equivalent  to  just  so  much  gold  and  silver  anywhere,  and 
will  buy  as  much  here,  or  abroad,  as  any  other  equal  quantity  oi' 
gold  or  silver,  of  the  same  degree  of  purity.  Agreed;  so  it  will,  but 
that  don't  touch  the  inquiry.  We,  by  no  means,  mean  to  claim 
that  it  debases  our  coin,  but  only  that  it  depreciates  it.  The  real 
question  is,  will  an  ounce  of  gold  or  silver,  here  at  home,  amongst 
ourselves,  buy  as  much  as  the  same  ounce  will  buy  in  Europe,  of 
things  common  to,  and  producible,  with  equal  ease  in  both  coun- 
tries ?  Will  it  buy  as  much  common  coarse  carpeting;  as  much 
common  blanketing;  as  many  yards  of  ordinary  woolen  cloth;  as 
much  clothing,  or  as  much  salt,  or  coal,  or  iron  here,  as  it  will  there  ? 
But  we  have  dwelt  enough  upon  this  part  of  the  subject  in 
speaking  of  the  tariff.  He,  that  with  our  tariff  and  the  amount  and 
variety  of  imports  under  it,  before  his  eyes,  will  not  admit  so  glaring 
a  fact,  without  argument,  will  scarcely  be  argued  into  it.  Well, 
then,  if  such  be  the  fact,  if  bank  notes  do  depreciate  the  value  of 
coin,  then  Congress,  in  the  attempt  to  regulate  that  value,  must 
operate  in  some  way,  upon  the  currency.  If  they  want  to  increase 
its  value,  they  must  reduce  the  amount,  either  of  coin  or  of  paper, 
in  circulation,  and  so,  vice  versa. 

And  this  brings  us  at  last  to  the  interesting  and  important  part 
of  the  inquiry.  How  ?  What  is  the  remedy  1  How  can  Congress 
control  the  amount  of  paper  money  in  eircul&tion  so  as  U>  reduce 
it,  if  necessary  ? 

We  answer:  First,  and  most  effectually,  by  a  direct,  positive 
and  decided  exercise  of  their  sovereignty  over  the  subject.  Let 
them  assume  and  exert  their  full  powers  in  this  respect,     lake 


upon  themselves,  UdrnwOj  the  direct  exercise  of  all  the  l'„„e- 
ons  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Constitution ,  «  of  coining  monev 
and  regulat.ng  the  value  thereof."     Lot  then,  positive!?  forWd 
-d  proh.b.t.  by  al  the  penalties  that  may  be  rer.uLite.  completely 
•  o    &et  the  prohtbttto,,  nny  State  Iron,  etnittin,  bills  oLed, 
and  from  aothonimg  any  persons  or  bodies  to  do  it.     Let  the  Su 
preme  Court  follow  the  lead  of  Confess  in  this  respeet.  i „  rJZ 
o  ex,st,n,  banh.  and  the  thin,  is  accomplished,     it  wou.d  fea 
-  Uow.to  the  claims  of  Stete   rights,   ,.f  chartered  rights 
vested  raghfe,  or  rights  1,-  prescription,  and  all  that  sort  oF  thi U 
being  rnngont  and  sounded  in  onr  cars  in  every  variety  of  cha2 
b»   the  evd  ,.  We  bar,  seen,  a  destroying  one!  and  must  be  cured' 
r.S  a  consuming  on-,  and  must  be  eradicated,  or  it  will.  soo?ler  or 
ater ■  cat  out  our-substance  not  only,  but  destroy  our  national  in- 
egnty,  li  not  our  vitality  even.*     It  has.  already,  well  nigh  pro- 
duced a  catastrophe,  at  the  prospect  of  which  every  patriot  ~    w 
pale,  every  lover  of  his  country  trembled,  and  the  friends  of  liberty 
everywhere  stood  aghast.     We  allude  to  the  action  of  South  Caro 
w,a  in  opposition  to  the  tariff,  called,  «  nullification.-  Jt  was  the  con-' 
dition  of  our  currency  that  led  to  the  enactment  of  that  tariff  which 
so  gnoTonsjy  affected  her  (South  Carolina's)  interests.     And  the 
murmur,,,,,,  that  now  so  harshly  grate  upon  our  cars,  from  within 
her  borders,  proceed  in  reality  rather  from  an  alienation  of  feelim 
hen  unhappdy  generated,  and  which  the  subsequent  policy  of  the 
General  Government,  in  that  aspect,  has  not,  by  any  neans  bee, 
calculated   to  reconcile,   but  rather  to  keep  dive,  than  from  too 
cause  to  winch  they  are  more  generally  assigned.     South  Carolina 
could,  better  than  more  .Northern  States,  and  would,  we  believe 
endure  w,th  composure,  all  the  evils  of  abolition  that  fall  upon  her,' 
md  she  not  feel  already  jaded  and  sore  under  the  burthens  .that 
mum,  have  imposed  upon  her.     And.  whence  the  necessity-,, 
repeat*,  wmenee  the  necessity  of  a  tariff,  but  from  the  diLed. 
thepielhoric,  the  bloated  condition  of  our  currency  ?    Should  then, 

tZ '  ™  "  .It'  ~Indeed  it8de8tr°y?nS  effect,  are  upon  us,  even  sooner 
than  we,  at  the  penning  of  these  line,,  anticipated-for  a    we  have  re' 

::,::'  ««**«* '«««. «  « **  .—,^0  that  „,,.,;:. 

turn  ,,  the  true  parent  ol  see,  .sion,  and  that  nullification  grew  out  of 


82 

what  is  now  being  so  freely  and  openly  talked  of  in  the  State  of 
South  Carolina,  and,  indeed,  begins  to  be,  in  some  of  the  adjoining 
States — be  consummated,  should  she  or  they  actually  secede  from 
the  Union,  the  future  faithful  and  closely  searching  historian 
will,  we  doubt  not,  find  the  true  first  cause  of  her  movement  in, 
and  assign  it,  as  we  have  done,  to  our  currency.  We  say  this  not  by 
way  of  palliating,  or  making  light  of  abolition,  by  any  means;  for 
of  all  the  ridiculous,  reckless,  foolish  and  absurd,  as  well  as  unlaw- 
ful and  unconstitutional  schemes  or  purposes,  ever  devised  or  con- 
templated, by  frail  humanity,  that,. in  one  view,  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  it,  claims  precedence.  The  Ancient  Crusaders  and 
their  objects  are,  we  think,  to  be  admired  and  eulogised  alongside 
of  the  abolitionists  and  their  views,  with  whatever  of  "  higher 
law,"  or  sanctity,  they  may  try  to  invest  them. 

But  we  digress  again.  The  Supreme  Court,  says  an  objector, 
will  not  follow  the  lead  of  Congress,  in  the  course  we  have 
above  proposed;  it  cannot;  it  is  ';res  adjudicata,"  has  been  de- 
cided already,  after  full  argument  and  consideration.  We  answer 
not  with  half  the  light  that  subsequent  experience  has  ■  thrown 
around  it.  It  has  been,  and  is  an  increasing  evil.  From  being  at 
first,  an  innocuous  plant,  or  one  perhaps  of  a  doubtful  character,  it 
has  grown  to  be  a  great  poisonous  Upas  tree,  overspreading  the 
whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  causing  desolation  and 
destruction  throughout  all  its  borders.* 

We  repeat  it,  let  Congress  take  the  lead  in  this  reform,  and  the 
courts  will,  without  a  doubt,  follow.  Knowledge  is  progressive. 
The  wisdom  of  Legislation  is,  or  ought  to  be,  progressive.  Juris- 
prudence is  progressive  also,  and  all  our  experiences  are  to  no  pur- 
pose, unless  we  profit  by  them. 

But,  continues  the  objector,  oh!  you  would  encroach  upon  State 
rights;  destroy  State  bonds;  take  away  the  power  of  issufrig  them; 
or  the  power  of  the  States  to  borrow  money,  and  all  that.  We  an- 
swer, not  at  all.  That  is  not  in  the  constitution,  nor  should  it  be 
the  aim  or  object  of  Congress.  It's  whole  object  should,  and  under 
the  constitution  would  be,  to  prohibit  any  State  from  coining  money, 


*  Note.  1861. — How  emphatically  true,  is  now  apparent,  if  what 
we  have  been  attributing  to  our  currency,  be  really  due  and  owing 
to  it. 


or  emitting  bills  of  credit,  or  attempting  to  authorize  any  person 
or  persons  to  do  either  of  them.  A  bond  is  not  a  bill  of  credit 
'1  he  States  have  nowhere  surrendered  their  right  or  power  to  borrow 
money,  or  to  issue  bonds  for  it,  or  for  any  other  legitimate  purpose 
What  is  a  bill  of  credit?  What  at  the  time  the  power  was  yielded 
up,  was  meant  and  understood  by  a  bill  of  credit?  A's  promissory 
note  for  the  payment  of  money  to  B,  on  demand  or  at  sixty  days, 
may  be  called  a  bill  of  credit ;  but  A.  of  whatever  State  he  may 
be  a  citizen,  has  a  right,  unquestionably,  to  issue  it,  if  he  can  find 
any  one  willing  to  take  it — a  right  so  to  do,  of  which  he  cannot, 
without  a  gross  infringement  of  his  liberty,  be  deprived;  so  has 
]>  and  C,  and  every  other  citizen  of  every  State,  and  that,  too, 
either  individually  or  conjointly  with  a  partner  or  partners,  as  a 
company.  The  right  to  issue  such  bills,  payable  on  demand,  or  at 
different  periods  of  time  specified  in  the  respective  bills,  upon  any 
and  every  kind  of  paper,  whether  in  writing,  or  printed,  or  en- 
nid  however  ornamented  or  plain  in  appearance,  and 
whether  issued  from,  and  made  payable  at,  his  own  domicile,  or  at 
what  the  maker  of  the  note  or  bill  chooses,  or  others  see  proper, 
to  call  an  oihec  or  a  banking  house,  is  a  necessary  and  natural  right, 
of  which  no  citizen  can  be  deprived.  But  the  right  of  a  State  to 
do  it,  or  to  authorize  others  to  do  it,  has  been  surrendered,  trans- 
ferred to  the  General  Government ;  it  does  not  exist  in  any  of 
the  States.  But.  continues  the  objector,  may  not  a  State  borrow 
money,  or  incur  a  debt,  and  agree  to  pay  it  in  sixty  or  ninety  days. 
and  issue  evidences  of  her  engagement  to  that  effect  ?  Unquestion- 
ably  she  may,  but  she  must  not  issue  them  in  the  form  of  bills  of 
credit,  nor,  indeed,  in  any  form  tfiat  may  lead  to  the  use  of  them 
as  currency,  or  money.  It  was  this,  at  which  the  provisions,  under 
the  Confederation,  were  aimed;  this  that  the  clauses  in  the  Con- 
stitution had  in  view.  The  object  of  both  was  the  same,  viz :  to 
prevent  fo?ever  thereafter  any  thing  like  the  continental  currency. 
as  itwas  called.  That  was  the  evil  to  be  remedied.  It  was  that,  under 
which  the  States  had  suffered,  and  were  then  suffering  so  griev- 
ously. It  cannot,  certainly,  be  argued  with  any  degree  of  force  or 
fairness,  that  State  bonds  may  be  made  to  supply  the  place  of  coin, 
and  come  into  use  as  currency;  but  to  such  an  argument,  if  urged, 
and  all  similar  ones,  we  would  apply  that  clause  of  the  Constitu 
tion  above,   already  quoted,   which    confers   upon   Congress  the 


d4 

/ 

"  power  to  regulate  the  value  of  coin/'  under  which  it  may,  fairly, 
and  with  perfect  propriety,  be  claimed  that  any  thing,  any  form  or 
character  of  metal  or  of  paper,  no  matter  by  what  name  it  may  be 
called,  or  what  its  character,  issued  by,  or  under  the  authority  of 
a  State,  that  goes  to  alter  the  value  of  coin,  either  by  appreciating 
or  depreciating  it,  is  unlawful  and  should  be  prohibited.     Such  an 
authority  is  indispensably  necessary  and  requisite,  and  the  exercise 
of  it  necessarily  appertains  to  the  supreme   power  alone.     The 
States  cannot  regulate  the  value  of  coin.     If  the  power  remained 
in  them,  they  could  not  exercise  it  with  any  degree  of  convenience 
or  advantage.     The  evils  of  n  mixed  currency,  under  such  circum- 
stances, would  far  outrun  any  action  the  several  States  could  take, 
and  bring  to  bear  upon  them.     Let,  then,  the  power  be  assumed 
and  acted  upon  by  Congress.    Let  its  action  be  approved,  and  sus- 
tained by  the  Judiciary,  and  the  evils  of  our  currency  will  readily 
be  curod.  But  what  then.    Are  we,  says  some  one,  to  have  no  paper 
money  ?     Are  we  to  be  deprived  of  all  the  conveniences  and  ad- 
vantages of  the  use  of  it?  To  be  thrown  back  upon  all  the  incon- 
veniences of  a  hard  money  currency  ?  By  no  means.  Paper  money 
is' not  only  useful  and  convenient,  but  it  has  become  indispensably 
necessary,   and  so  long  as  it  enters  into,  and  makes  a  part  of  the 
currency  of  other  commercial  countries  with  whom  we  deal,  so 
long  we  may  with  safety  and  economy,  not  only,  but  with  great 
advantages,  use  it, — but  certainly,  only  with  as  carefully  an  ascer- 
tained, and  as  full  and  accurate  a  knowledge  of,  and  careful  a 
reference  to  the  use  of  it,  by  those  commercial  countries,  as  all  the 
means  within  our  reach  will  enable  us  to  do,  or  possess   ourselves 
of.  No  commercial  people  are,  or  at  this  day  can  be,  perfectly  inde- 
pendent in  this  respect.     No  nation  can  assume,  or  now  hope  to 
mi  rive  at,  an  eminence  in  commerce,  or  in  the  arts,  or  in  arms,  even, 
that  would  enable  her  to  dictate  in  the  matter  of  currency. 

So  far  from  the  exclusion  of  paper  from  our  jcurrency,  we  would 
urge  and  insist  upon  the  use  of  it,  not  only  for  the  reasons  of  its 
convenience  and  economy,  but  for  the  very  important  and  salutary 
additional  purpose  of  correcting,  by  the  use  of  it,  the  frequent 
and  unavoidable  irregularities  and  fluctuations  of  gold  and  silver 
as  currency,  hereinbefore  alluded  to.  Indeed,  in  this  respect, 
we  would  that  it  were  possible  to  substitute  the  use  of  paper  entirely 
for  gold  and  silver.      We  could  then,  by  a  careful  and  provident 


lent  of  our  currcn  us  complete 

diness,  and  uniformity,  in  the  prices  (A  thii  irities 

in  the  production  or  quantitic  of  those  things  would  admit  of, 
without,  as  we  now  necessarily  have,  the  addition  to  those  irregu- 
larities of  the  inequalities  in  the  supplies  of  our  gold  and  silver, 
which  all  will  admit  arc,  and  under  any  circumstances  must  be, 
very  j^reat.  As  it  would  be  under  a  currency  wholly  metallic  cv<  o 
te  the  differences  between  prices,  occasioned  by  an  abundant  or 
by  a  short  crop  of  wheat  or  cotton  or  tobacco,  for  instance,  mu  t 
bl  added  the  difference  produced  by  the  comparative  abundance 
or  scarcity  of  gold  and  .-ulver,  the  concurrence  of  which  differ- 
ences, that  is  to  say,  the  scarcity  of  both,  would  make  the  c< 
the  thing  almost  insurmountable — whereas,  the  abundance  of  both 
would  make  the  thing  easily  to  be  procured,  though  nominally,  at 
perhaps  a  high  price.  But  when  to  those  irregularities,  nee 
rily  existing,  and  growing  out  of  the  very  nature  of  the  thin-  , 
the  tremendous  and  frightful  irregularities  occasioned  by  th< 
of  paper  money,  over  the  issues  of  which  there  is  no  control,  to 
the  amount  of  which  there  is  no  limit,  and  the  quantity  of  which 
may  be  so  speedily  and  easily  increased  or  diminished,  at  the  plea- 

o?  more  than  fifteen  hundred  irresponsible  institut 
added,  we  may  then  begin  to  realize  some  of  the    evils    of  our 
curr<  •  say  irresponsible  institutions,  because  their  re  ponsi 

biHty  to  the  respective  States  to  which  they  belong  ainouni  I 
nothing;  for  each  State  seems  to  regard  the  currency  as  a  na- 
tional affair,  over  which  she  las  no  control,  of  which  I  I  ike 
no  care  or  heed,  and  that  for  the  very  reason,  no  doubt,  that  the 
right  to  coin  money  is  vested  in  the  General  Government  exclu- 
sively. But  what  avails  the  power  to  coin  money,  if  every  State 
may,  by  hundreds  of  institutions  of  her  own  creation,  deteriorate 
the  value  of  that  money,  "ad  libitum?'' 

We  have  said  that  we  would,  were  it  practicable,  substitute  a 
paper  currency  entirely,  in  the  place  of  gold  and  silver,  and  although 
that  cannot,  for  very  obvious  reasons,  be  done,  yet  w.  arc  quite 
satisfied  that  a  very  considerable  approach  to  it  may  be  made,  with 
very  great  advantage,  and  this  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of 
another  of  the  means  we  propose  by  way  of  remedy. 

We  entertain  no  doubt  whatever  but  that  for  our  internal  or 
domestic  commerce,  a  paper    currency   of  the   right  kind,  issued 


.36 

from  the  proper  source,  in  a  sufficient  amount,  and  for  every  variety 
of  sum,  especially  the  smaller  ones,  would,  upon  a  fair  trial  of  it, 
under  circumstances  as  favorable  as  they  might  readily  be  made^ 
be  very  soon  found  to  be  a  far  more  convenient  and  useful,  and 
therefore  desirable  currency,  than  even  gold  and  silver,  and  by  it  m 
we  mean   Treasury  notes — notes  issued  from  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  under  the  authority  of  Congress,  redeemable  in  the 
payment  of  dues  to  the  Government,  and  in  no  other  way,  except 
as  gold  and  silver  money  i$  itself  redeemable;  and  we  *are  right 
glad  to  have  had  as  much  experience  of  the  use  of  that  kind  of 
money  as  has,  from  time  to  time,  been  afforded  us.  A  mass  of  pre- 
judice, and  of  foregone  conclusions  of  an  apparently  overwhelm- 
ing weight,  are,  we  know,  to  be  met  by  a  proposition  of  this  kind, 
and  the  one  to  which  we  attach  the  greatest  degree  of  importance 
is,  that  it  is  proposed  by  us  to  carry  a  prominent  principle  of  the 
Homocpathetic  practice  of  medicine  into  the  currency;  and,  in  a 
sense,  it  is  truly  so.  Not  that  we  wish,  by  any  means,  to  commit  our 
currency  into  the  hands  of  Ilomoepathic  or  any  other  physicians, 
much  as  it  requires  depletion,  but  merely  to  adopt,  to  some  extent, 
the  principle  that  "  similia similibus  curantur," — in  plain  English, 
that  by  paper  money  issued  by   and  under  the  authority  of  the 
General  Government,  payable  on  demand  or  presentation  in  dues 
to  Government,  without  interest,  we  propose  to  eradicate  the  evils 
of  our  present  currency  by  supplanting  with  it  the  present  State 
bank  circulation  of  paper.  And  can  the  ultimately  successful  result 
of  it  be  reasonably  doubted?     Is  not  the  credit  of  the  Govern- 
ment fully  adequate  to  it  I     Let  him   who  would  falter  here  look 
at  Great  Britain  with  her  thousands  of  millions  of  indebtedness — 
an  amount  of  indebtedness  that  no  subject,  no  creditor  even,  of 
that  government,  believes  or  even  hopes  can  ever  be  paid — an 
indebtedness  that  has  been  accumulating  for  now  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years.     Has  she  credit?     Is  faith  in  her  promises  adequate 
to  the  full  and  liberal  supply  of  all  her  pecuniary  wants,  enormous 
as  they  are  in  amount  ?     So,  too,  reference  may  be  made  with 
very  much  the  same  result  to  all  the  kingdoms  and  empires  of 
Europe.     There  the  promise  and  expectation  of  the  annual  pay- 
ment of  a  low  interest  merely,  and  the  well-known  regular  and 
prompt  fulfilment  of  that  promise,  will  insure  to  the  Government 
the  use  of  a  principal  sum  of  money,   which  the   lender  has  no 


37 

reason  to  hope  can  ever  be  repaid.  And  can  it  be  reasonably 
doubted  that  here,  in  the  United  State.;  alone,  where  the  amount 
of  our  national  debt  is  below  the  annual  expenditun  me  of 

e  governments,  a  credit  of  one  or  two,  or  even  of  live  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  (were  that  amount  nccedfeary  |  cannot  be  estab- 
lished and  steadily  maintained  ?  It  is  not  proposed  merely  to 
spend  money,  to  make  a  debt,  but  to  furnish  a  currency  which, 
once  furnished,  need  only  be  made  to  keep  puce  in  amount  with 
the  growth  of  the  country,  in  population,  in  agriculture,  <Vc.  <y.c  . 
and  which  would  merely  require  renewal,  from  time  to  time,  as 
wear  and  tear  might  affect  it.  "We  do  not  want,  probably,  more 
than  half  the  amount  of  paper  currency  we  have  been  using. 

Is  the  power  proposed,  one  in  which  there  is  danger  ?  Is  it  a 
power  that  might  be  very  much  misused  ?  Tray,  let  US  ask  in 
what  department  of  the  Government  is  there  not  danger'/ 
Which  of  its  powers  may  not  be  misused'/  There  is  perfi 
no  where.  Constant  care  and  vigilance  i.>  the  price  of  all  our  po- 
litical privileges,  not  only,  but  of  all  our  enjoyments.  Are  not 
the  powers  of  the  Treasury  department  large  enough  already  to 
admit  of  their  being  misused  ?  Arc  not  its  receipts  fjuite  I; 
enough,  even  now,  to  tempt  cupidity  ?  \\c  cannot  have  complete 
safety  in  any  respect.  Should  it  be  supposed  that  any  thing  would 
be  gained  on  the  score  of  safety,  or  that  greater  wisdom  and  a 
more  provident  administration  of  that  department  would  be  .  ecured 
by  putting  the  power  we  contemplate  into  the  hands  of  a  commis- 
why.  let  it  be  done:  but  in  either,  or  in  any  e  •  very 

irity  far  the  faithful  administration  of  it  be  thrown  around  it 
that  the  wisdom  of  Congress  can  devise.  For  ourself,  we  would 
have  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  single,  as  it  is  now,  that  it  might 
be  prompt  in  action,  incapable  of  a  division  of  sentiment  or  opin- 
ion. It  should  be  wise,  watchful  and  provident,  of  course,  and  the 
more  readily  to  secure  the  highest  ability  in  the  administration  of 
its  duties,  the  highest  place  in  the  cabinet  should  be  attached  to 
it.     Indeed,  that  should  always  have  been  the  case. 

But,  says  some  one,  arc  you  not  proposing  to  increase  our  paper 
currency,  of  which  you  have  been  complaining  so  loudly,  and  to 
which  you  have  attributed  so  many  and  such  great  evils.  Are 
you  not  actually  proposing  to  increase  it  by  the  issue  of  an  cnor- 


38 

mous  amount  of  Treasury  notes?  to  pile  Pelion  upon  Ossa,  in  other 
words,  in  the  matter  of  paper  currency  ?  We  reply,  not  at  all. 
Let  the  Constitution  be,  in  this  respect,  fur  once,  properly  inter- 
preted, and  have  its  full  and  legitimate,  and  necessary  operation. 
Let  the  State  banks  be  thereby,  in  consequence,  dropt  down  to 
their  proper  level  of  joint  stock  companies.  Let  them  be  stript  of 
legislative  patronage,  of  State  partnership  and  support ;  be  put 
into  their  proper  spheres  of  action,  and  confined  there ;  and  let 
the  better  currency  of  United  States  Treasury  notes  be  furnished 
as  above  suggested,  redeemable  everywhere  throughout  the  Union 
in  payment  of  United  States'  dues,  and  the  evils  of  our  present 
currency  will  rapidly  begin  to  disappear.  But  there  are  additional 
means,  if  necessary,  whereby  to  make  the  remedy  still  more 
effectual,  as  will  presently  appear.  Vvrc  tarry  a  moment,  here,  to 
consider,  in  this  connexion,  matters  that  suggest  themselves. 

We  have  said  above,  "Treasury  notes  without  interest  upon 
them,"  for  the  very  fact  of  such  a  note  bearing  an  interest  pre- 
vents its  currency  as  money.  Gold  and  silver,  as  currency,  bear 
no  interest — any  amount  of  it  upon  them,  however  low,  would  ' 
interfere  with  their  circulation,  and  any  thing  like  an  ordinary 
interest  upon  them  would  stop  their  circulation  entirely.  Who 
would  want  to  circulate  this  gold  and  silver  if,  being  in  his  pocket, 
it  were  drawing  an  interest  ? 

Notes  of  the  United  States  Treasury  not  a  currency  !  Why,  it 
is  simply  because  they  have  never  been  fairly  tried  that  such  an 
idea  has  obtained  to  any  extent.  In  every  attempt  that  lias  yet 
been  made '  in  that  respect,  they  have  either  been  encumbered 
with  an  interest,  or  else  they  have  been  issued  for  amounts,  seve- 
rally, that  has  precluded  them  from  getting  into  the  hands  of 
people  generally,  and  into  the  every-day  business  of  life.  Banks, 
capitalists,  etc.,  have  seen  and  handled  them.  But  banks  wish  to 
give  circulation  to  paper  of  another  kind,  and  capitalists  make  but 
a  small  proportion  of  our  population,  and  besides,  are  generally 
bank  men.  Give  out,  issue,  we  say,  Treasury  notes  for  every 
variety  of  sum,  especially  for  the  smaller  ones ;  give  to  the  notes  a 
convenient  size,  shape,  &c,  for  a  currency  ;  adapt  them  to  it  and 
to  the  necessities  and  wants  of  the  people  generally,  and  they  will 
give  them  circulation.     Faith  in  them  will  soon  become  implicit, 


so 

and  their  complete  ascendancy  over  every  other  money,  even  ^old 
and  silver  not  excepted,  be  secured  and  easily  maintained. 

But,  what  then  ?  says  an  objector — you  will  only  have  thus  far, 
according  to  your  own  propositions,  furnished  a  governmental  pa- 
per currency  in  addition  to  the  paper  currency  of  the  State  banks 
as  joint  stock  companies,  whereby  you  will- have  made  what  was 
before  bad,  worse.  We  answer,  that  the  State  banks  will  have 
been  reduced  to  a  level  with  individuals — have  been  subjected  to 
the  same  laws — made  liable  to  all  the  consequences  of  an  over  issue 
of*  paper  money.  Liability  for  its  redemption  will  fall  upon  every 
member  of  the  company  to  the  full  extent  of  his  ability,  and  as 
above  remarked,  the  shield  of  State  patronage  and  support  will 
havg  been  taken  from  them,  and  they  will  have  been  deprived  of 
the  indulgencies  and  dispensations  now  so  often  granted  by  their 
respective  States.  And  think  you  that  they  will  thereafter  be 
found  travelling  beyond  their  appropriate  spheres  ?  Should  any 
of  them  be  found  doing  so,  let  them  meet  the  consequences  that 
befall  individuals  under  like  circumstances.  But  the  number  of 
them  will  gradually  decrease  with  the  decrease  of  their  bush, 

But  we  said  above,  that  we  had  not  yet  concluded  our  remedies. 
We  would,  in  addition,  stop  operations  at  our  mints,  especially  at 
those  that  arc  not  located  in  the  gold  producing  regions.  What  ? 
;tuj»  the  mints  !  Yes,  we  reply,  without  hesitation — great  and 
wide-spread  evils  call  for  thorough  and  severe  remedies.  Stop  the 
mints  until  this  overwhelming  flood  of  State  bank  paper  shall  have 
subsided,  and  the  bitter  waters  of  it  retired  into  their  proper  re- 
servoirs, and  been  secured  there  from  further  irruptions.  They 
ibmerging  one  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  earth,  and  threaten 
its  desolation,  if  not  its  destruction.  What  are  we  coining  money 
for?  For  whom  arc  we  now,  and  have  we  been  coining  it  almost 
from  the  establishment  of  our  first  mint?  Not  for  ourselves,  ccr 
tainly,  for  we  have  now,  and  always  have  had,  comparatively,  very 
little  of  it.  We  have  been  coining  for  Europe  and  Asia,  and  for 
other  parts  of  the  world — arc  doing  so  now,  at  this  moment.  The 
expenses  of  doing  it,  great  as  they  are,  fall  upon  us,  but  other 
governments  and  people  have  had,  and  at  this  moment  are  ha\ 
the  benefits  (if  any)  of  it.  It  goes  abroad,  leaves  u 
can  coin  it.  Besides,  coining  it  adds  nothing  to  it;,  value  abroad; 
it  goes  there  as  bullion,  by  weight  only.     The  overissue — the  pie- 


40 

thora  of  bank  notes,  cheapens  it  here  amongst  us,  and  away  it  goes 
to  where  it  is  more  valuable — where,  in  other  words,  the  "  pro 
rata"  amount  of  currency  in  use  is  below  ours.  Gold  and  silver 
are  commercial  commodities,  pre-eminently  so,  and  must  come  un- 
der the  rules  that  govern  in  that  case.  That  there  are,  will  be, 
indeed,  must,  be  occasional  remittances  of  them  to  us  again,  there 
can  be  no  question,  for  as  soon  as  we  shall  have  been  nearly  drained 
of  them,  as  soon  as  the  banks  shall  have  found  it  necessary,  for 
the  want  of  them,  to  cease  to  discount  again,  to  issue  more  paper 
money,  a  pressing  demand  for  gold  and  silver  must  again  arise--- 
another  panic  comes  over  us.  They  will  then  appreciate  rapidly 
again,  and  must  be  had  at  any  cost  or  premium,  and  back  again 
they  begin  to  come,  of  course  j  but,  alas  !  too  late,  in  too  many 
instances,  and  at  what  cost  to  us,  too  many  commercial  men,  too 
many  manufacturers,  and  indeed,  too  many  of  all  classes,  can  testify, 
from  a  very  sad  and  sorrowful  experience.  The  regular  and  almost 
constant  current  of  them  is,  however,  has  been,  and  under  our 
present  policy,  must  continue  to  be,  from  us.  Let  any  one  satisfy 
himself  what  has  been  the  amount  of  gold  produced  from  Califor- 
nia alone,  within  the  last  fifteen  years — more,  doubtless,  than  five 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  most  of  it,  too,  having  been  coined  at 
our  mints — and  ask  himself  where  it  is  now?  Have  we  it?  Is  it 
in  the  United  States?  No,  no.  Take  into  consideration,  if  be 
will,  our  increase  of  population;  the  increased  number  of  banks 
that  have  doubtless  secured  some  of  it,  and  the  increase  of  our 
agriculture,  commerce  and  manufactures — still  there  is  compara- 
tively none  of  this  immense  California  product  amongst  us.  It 
can't  remain  here.  We  can't  keep  it.  There  is  a  law  of  com- 
merce as  imperative  and  immutable  as  the  laws  of  the  ancient 
Modes  and  Persians  are  said  to  have  been,  that  they,  gold  and 
silver,  must  go  from  whence  they  are  less,  to  where  they  are  more 
valuable.  Take  into  the  account,  too,  the*golden  product  of  Aus- 
tralia, within  a  considerably  shorter  and  more  recent  period,  and 
the  effects  of  our  paper  currency  upon  gold  and  silver  coin  will 
stand  out  in  something  like  their  true  prominence.  Let  us  stop 
then,  take  away,  in  some  healthful  measure,  the  basis  upon  which 
these  banks  are  supposed  to  stand,  and  they  must  curtail  their 
issues  of  paper  money. 

Will  it  be  argued  that  the  banks  will  immediately  possess  them- 


41 

selves  of  Treasury  notes  as  a  basis  for  their  circulation,  and  con- 
tinue thereupon  their  issues  of  paper,  redeeming  them  therewith 
instead  of  gold  and  silver.  We  reply,  their  charters  require  the 
redemption  of  their  notes  in  gold  and  silver  only.  Besides  our 
foreign  commerce  requires  those  metals  over  and  above  all  the  cot- 
ton, and  tobacco.  &e.,  that  are  sent  abroad. 

Our  foreign  commerce  !     But  you  will,  says  one.  have  destroyed 
that  completely — you  will  have  s<»  reduced  prices  here,  by  reducing 
^thc  amount  of  our  currency  ;  by  ceasing,  to  a  great  extent,  to  coin 
^Rioney,  which,  you  admit,  is  the  currency  of  our  foreign  commerce. 
to  have  broken  it  down  completely.     But  not  so,  by  any  means. 
What  we  really  want  from  our  foreign  commoted  is  more  gold  aid 
er,  and  a  less,   much   less  amount    of  costly  foreign  manufac- 
tures Jand  wares;  the  tine  and  expensive  laces ;  the  eostiy  silks 
and  satins;  the  rich  bn  the  fine   cloths;  the  elegant  furni- 

ture, and  all  that  kind  of  things,  of  Europe  and  Asia,  would  be 
but  a  small  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  ot  our  country's  really  healthful 
and  substantial  policy  and  success.     The  an  uneducated 

fan.-y  ;  of  a  false  and  foolish  pride,  ;  of  a  low  and  unworthy  ambi- 
tion might  produce  a  sigh  over  the  loss  of  such  things,  but  sure 
we  are.  that  no  right  minded  lover  of  country,  or  of  self,  would 
ever  regret  it.  J3eside.  encouragement  of  the  right  kind  would 
necessarily  result  from  such  a  course  to  our  own  arts  and  manu- 
factures, to  our  own  enterprize  and  industry,  and  the  line  - 
and  the  silks,  and  the  rich  wines,  and  even  the  delicious  teay,  now 
so  costly  to  us,  would  very  soon  begin  to  make  their  appearance 
as  products  of  our  own  industry  upon  our  own  soils.  For  it  may. 
we  believe,  be  safely  said  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  whole  cata- 
logue of  human  wants  that  may  not  be  produced  abundantly  within 
the  limits  of  the  United  States.  He  who  would  doubt  the  8 
tation  of  climate  and  soil  in  this  country  to  every  kind  of  product. 
or  the  genius  and  enterprise  of  its  people  to  every  kind  of  indus- 
trial and  remunerative  effort,  has  not,  we  fear,  taken  sufficient  care 
to  advise  himself  in  either  of  those  respects. 

We  mean  to  be  understood  to  say,  not  that  we  arc  opposed  to 
foreign  commerce,  but  that  it  has,  in  a  great  degree,  become  un- 
profitable to  us,  and  therefore  unwise — not  that  we  desire  a  sus- 
pension of  it,  but  that  true  policy  and  the  best  interests  of  the 
6 


42 

country  require  a  modification  of  it.     It  has  been  urged  on  under 
the  stimulus  of  our  inflated  currency  to  an  unhealthful  extent. 
Relieved  of  that  influence,  it  would  at  once  resume  and  pursue  a 
safe,  healthful  and  beneficial  course.     Its  happy  results  would  re- 
dound to  us,  not  only  individually,  but  nationally.     We  must,  for 
the  present,  at  any  rate,  be  a  commercial  people.     The  amount  of 
our  exports  demands  that  we  should,  but  true  policy  and  a  wise 
and  laudible  economy  call  for  the  importation  of  a  less  amount  of 
foreign  products.     As  to  the  matter  of  currency,  no  braneh  tf 
national  industry  and  enterprise  can,  with  more  safety  to  itself^ 
better  results  to  the  country,  be  left  to  its  own  care  and  provision 
for  itself  than  our  foreign  commerce.     If  healthful  and  beneficial, 
it  will  provide  a  currency  for  itself.     If  otherwise,  better  that  it 
should  not  be  able  to  do  so  until  it  shall  have  resumed  a  healthful 
condition.     Reduce  the  amount  of  our  currency ;  bring  it  down 
to  its  "prorata"  amount  compared  with  the  currencies  of  other 
commercial  countries,  and  our  foreign  commerce  will  have  quite 
its  proportion  to  do.     Beside,  our  cotton  and  tobacco,  and  sugar, 
and  naval  stores,  rice,  &c,  to  keep  it  in  action,  our  indian  corn, 
our  wheat,  our  rye,  our  beef  and  pork,  our  wool,  and  a  long  cata- 
logue, indeed,  of  other  products,  will  demand  its  aid;  for  no  man 
in  his  proper  senses  can  persuade  himself  that  any  of  those  things 
can  be  produced  as  cheaply  in  Europe  as  they  can  in  this  country, 
under  a  "  pro  rata"  amount  of  currency.     Why,  the  comparative 
prices  of  land  alone,  here  and  there  respectively,  ought  conclu- 
sively to  settle  that  inquiry — the  comparative  qualities  and  va- 
rieties of  soil  and  of  climate,  the  differences  of  taxation,  civil  as 
well    as    ecclesiastical,    the  oppressive    remnants   there    of    the 
Feudal  system,  and  a  long  catalogue  of  other  considerations  being 
left  entirely  out  of  view,  and  no  allusion  being  made  to  the  better 
education  and  more  thorough  evocation  here  than  there  of  genius 
and  talent,  and  enterprize  and  industry.    .  But  we  need  not  pursue 
the  argument  further.     No  statistics  are  needed  to  prove  that  our 
currency  is  an  unwise  and  impolitic  one,  and  that  it  is  greatly  in 
excess  of  that  of  any  other  commercial  people  in  the  world  whose 
uses  for  currency  are  not  much  more  numerous  and  extensive  than 
our's  are.     It  must  follow,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  our  foreign 
commerce  is  not  in  a  healthful  condition. 

There  remains  yet  to  be  considered  the  very  important  and  inte- 


43 

resting  question,  can  Congress  constitutionally  make  its  Treasury 
notes  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts  ?  If  so,  then,  all  the  difficul- 
ties of  restoring  to  our  currency  a  sound  and  healthful  condition 
would  seem  to  have  been  overcome.  We  admit,  of  course,  that 
there  is  no  express  grant,  "  in  haec  verba,"  to  that  effect,  in  the 
Constitution  j  nor,  in  fact,  is  the  power  to  make  gold  and  stiver 
coin  a  tender  granted  therein.  It  must  belong  to  Congress,  how- 
ever, if  it  exists  at  all,  for  it  is  very  clear  that  no  State  can 
make  "any  thing  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a  tender.''  Now,  punc- 
tilious as  we  profess  to  be  upon  the  subject  of  State  rights,  we  are 
constrained  to  admit  that  if  the  power  to  establish  a  tender,  be 
uartiy  and  unavoidably  inferable  from  a  power  that  is  clearly 
granted  and  indispensably  necessary  to  the  full  and  fair  exercise 
of  the  elearlj/-<jra,  r,  then  Congress  unquestionably  have 

the  power  thus  resulting  by  implication  or  inference.  We  have 
endeavored  to  state  our  proposition  in  a  way  to  avoid  all  objections, 
even  from  State  rights  men  of  the  "strictest  sect." 

Let  us,  then,  with  candor,  and  we  hope  with  patriotic  views, 
proceed  upon  the  inquiry,  "can  Congress,  Constitutionally,  make 
its  Treasury  notes  a  tender  in  payment  of  debts  ?  That  they  have 
the  sole  and  exclusive  right  "  to  coin  money,"  "no  one  will  qj 
tion,  and  that  they  have  the  right  to  fix  and  determine,  and  to 
announce,  both  by  law  and  by  "  superscription"  upon  the  face  of 
their  coin,  its  value,  cannot  be  questioned.  But  their  power  over 
it  does  not  terminate  here,  as  we  have  seen  above.  Who  is  to  keep 
the  coin  to  that  law  and  "  superscription,"  or  to  alter  or  change  it 
in  any  degree,  if  it  shall  become  necessary  so  to  do?  Why,  Con- 
gress is  to  "regulate  the  value  of  it"  k-  in  totidem  verbis."  To 
regulate  it  for  what  purposes  and  uses  ?  For  all  purposes,  mani- 
festly, to  which  it  is  applicable.  But  we  have  seen  that  it  is  pecu- 
liarly applicable  to  our  foreign  commerce,  more  so  than  to  any  other 
use,  indeed.  Now,  the  course  of  our  argument  in  this  respect 
having  been  hereinbefore  clearly  foreshadowed,  we  shall,  in  mercy 
ro  the  reader,  forego  much  of  what  we  cannot  say  better  or  more 
forcibly  here  than  we  have  already  said  it.  We  shall,  therefore, 
very  briefly  inquire,  how  is  Congress  to  "  regulate  the  value  of 
coin  ?"  By  wliat  are  they  to  regulate  it  ?  What  is  to  be  the  rule 
of  valuation?  Whence  is  it  to  be  drawn,  or  obtained,  or  had  ? 
With  reference  to  what  is  it  to  be  fixed  and  settled  ?  Why,  clearly. 


44 

undeniably,   and  beyond  all  cavil  or  question,  reference  is  to  be 
bad  to  its  value  in  the  commercial  world.     Thence  the  rule  is  to 
be  drawn.  It  can  be  had  from  no  where  else — from  no  other  source, 
unless,  indeed,  all  sense  and  judgment  are  to  be  dispensed  with, 
and  mere  blind  and  arbitrary  will,  without  thought  or  reason,  are 
to  be  called  into  action,  which  cannot,  for  a  moment,  be  supposed. 
Well  then,  Congress,  in  the  rational  exercise  of  this  power,  are  to 
look  about  them  and  into  the  commercial  world,  and  draw  thence 
the  rule  of  valuation  ;  or,  to  speak  more  directly  and  plainly,  they 
are  to  adopt  the  valuation  there  existing,  and  settled,  and  estab- 
lished.    They  can't  go  above  it,  certainly,  and  make  our  coin  more 
valuable,  for  reasons  that  are  too  obvious  to  need  repetition  here — 
and  should  they  fall   far  below  it,  they  would  thereby  necessarily 
exclude  the  country,  to  a  great  extent,  from  the  commercial  world. 
Of  the  two  extremes  the  latter  would  be  the  far  preferable  one, 
however.     But  the  very  adoption,   by  Congress,   of  that  rule  of 
valuation  of  the  coin,  although  the  only  one  that  they  can,  in  the 
exercise  of  a  wise  and  sound  discretion,  adopt,  must  necessarily  be 
productive  of  all  the  inconveniences  and  evils  of  an  exclusively 
metallic  currency,  tor  the  reason  that  commercial  nations,  especially 
those  with  which  the  United  States  are  in  large  and  intimate  com- 
mercial intercourse,  depreciate  the  value  of  coin  by  the  use  of 
paper  money — of  bank  notes.     Not  that  they  thereby  depreciate  it 
abroad  in    the  commercial  world — they  do  not  do  that — but  at 
home,  amongst  themselves,  respectively.  They  do  it  by  means  ex- 
trinsic of  any  operation  upon  the  coin  itself.     The  means  do  not 
go  out  into  the  world  with  the  coin  as  a  debasement  of  the  quality 
of  it  or  a  reduction  of  the  weights  of  it  would,  but  remain  in  the 
hands  of  the  governments  that  use  them.  Out  of  the  hands  of  those 
governments  and  people,  their  coin  have  a  higher  value  than  they 
have  within  them,  although  the  quality  and  weight  of  the  coin  re- 
main unchanged.    The  means  used  arfc paper  rnoney.   It  occasions 
one  value  of  the  coin  within,  and.  another  out  of  the  government 
that  uses  it.     Congress  can   operate  to  the  same  eifect  upon  the 
coin  by  the  use  of  similar  means,  but  cannot  make  use  of  (heir's, 
nor  can  Congress,  having  adopted  similar  means  of  its  own,  lend 
or  dispose  of  them,  or  communicate  them  to  the  coin  in  any  way 
so  that  they  shall  go  abroad  with  it.  They  are  effectual  only  within 
the  limits  of  the  government  that  uses  them,  not  outside  of  it. 


rShe  use  of  paper  money,  in  other  words,  depreciates  the  value  of 
coin  within  the  government  that  permits  it,  which  depreciation 

docs  not  necessarily  adhere  to  the  coin  upon  its  emerging  from  that 
government  into  the  commercial  world,  because  the  whole  of  that 
world  do  not  use  paper  money,  or  if  any  portions  of  it  do,  not  to 
the  same  extent  that  the  government  from  which  the  coin  emula- 
ted does.  If.  perhaps,  uses  paper  money,  as  we  do,  greatly  in  ex- 
cess, and  thereby  greatly  depreciates-//  homeihe  value  of  its  coin  ■ 
but  other  portions  of  the  commercial  world  do  not,  perhaps,  use  it 
'paper  money)  at  all— others  use  it  very  sparingly,  and  amongst 
them  it  (coin)  appreciates  in  a  ratio  inverse  to  the  amount  of  paper 
money  used,  the  comparative  population  and  uses  for  money  being 
taken  into  the  account. 

Well,  that  the  appreciation  or  depreciation  of  money,  by  these 
or  any  other  means,  must  necessarily  affect  the  prices  of  thii 
has  been  put,  we  trust,  beyond  doubt  or  contradiction— and  that 
the  relative  cost  or  prices  of  things  in  different  countries  and 
places,  must  enter  into  the  consideration  of  commercial  men  is  too 
obvious  to  require  more  than  an  allusion  to  it. 

^  We  come,  then,  to  the  absolute  necessity,  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  commercial  world,  of  thl  introduction  and  use  of  paper 
money.     The  value  of  coin  cannot  be  wisely,  economically  and 
judiciously  regulated  without  it.     It  has  obtained  such  a  degree  of 
favor  with,  such  a  hold  upon  that  world,  that  we  must  either^adopt 
it  or  stand  out  of  that  world;  but  v\e  are  already  in  it— largely, 
alas !  too  largely  so;  over  head  and  ears  into  it,  actually  drowi 
in  it— and  that  simply  because  Congress  will  not  "  regulate  the 
value  of  coin"  here  in  the  United  States.     Because  they  will  not, 
or  do  not,  do  what  it  is  their  exclusive  right  and  duty  to  do.  They 
have  suffered  our  coin   to  be  depreciated  by  an  excess  of  paper 
money,  until  all  the  worthless  gewgaws  and  trash  of  the  world. 
are  brought  and  thrown  upon  us  in  exchange  for  our  coin,  at  most 
exhorbitant  prices— until,   comparatively  none,  of  it  can  remain 
amongst  us.     California  has  contributed— is  contributing  her  im- 
mense treasures  of  gold  and  silver— and  our  mints  are  milling  it, 
night  and  day,  in  vain.  Our  manufacturers  have  incurred  the  ruin- 
ous competition  necessarily  resulting  from  it.     Tarifts  have  been 
devised,  altered,  amended,  revised,  corrected  and  adjusted,  from 
time  to  time,  almost  from  year  to  year,  indeed,  for  their  benefit 


46 

that  did  them  no  good,  but  carried  distress  and  almost  ruin  into 
interests  of  another  kind,  insomuch  as  to  beget  there  an  attitude 
of  almost  open  hostilities — aye,  and  until  our  enormous  surplus 
quantities  of  bread  stuffs  must  lie  rotting  upon  the  hands  of  their 
industrious  and "  deserving  producers.  But  enough.  If  these, 
and  such  as  these,  be  the  evils  of  our  currency,  then,  let  Congress 
by  all  the  means  in  its  power,  regulate  it. 

And  from  all  that  we  have  seen,  we  think  the  conclusion  is  clear 
that  it  can  only  be  done  wisely  and  judiciously  by  a  mixed  cur- 
rency of  gold  and  silver,  and  of  paper — of  paper  limited  in  amount , 
capable  of  being  readily  controlled,  and  susceptible  of  an  easy  and 
speedy  contraction  or  expansion,  as  the  condition,  in  that  respect, 
of  the  commercial  world  shall,  from  time  to  time,  indicate  to  an 
intelligent  and  capable  observer,  or  to  a  committee  of  them,  the 
necessity  of  doing. 

We  must  have,  then,  a  mixed  currency.  Paper  money  must 
make  a  component  part  of  it.  This,  Congress  alone  have  the  power 
to  authorize,  and  being  authorized  by  them,  it  must  be  lawful 
money  and  a  tender,  of  course,  in  the  payment  of  all  debts. 

Shall  it  be  the  paper  of  a  bank  established  by  the  authority  of 
Congress  ?  No  !  We  have  trie€  that,  with  no  very  good  or  advan- 
tageous results,  and  beside  the  prejudice  that  exists  against  an 
institution  of  that  kind,  the  profits  of  it,  though  derived  to  a  great 
extent  from  the  uses  of  the  public  money,  inure  to  a  few. 

A  bank  founded  upon  the  revenues  of  the  government,  then,  or 
which  is  the  same  thing  in  effect,  Treasury  notes,  would  seem  to 
be  the  great  desideratum. 

The  matters  of  branches  or  sub-officers  of  the  Treasury  depart- 
ment in  the  several  States,  or  in  smaller  districts,  of  loans  or  dis- 
counts, of  securities,  &c.  &c,  being  merely  matters  of  detail,  need 
not  be  traced  out  here — indeed,  whether  loans  or  discounts  should 
be  made  or  not  is  a  question  that  we  should  decide  rather  with 
the  view  of  more  speedily  superseding  the  currency  of  State  bank 
paper  than  from  any  other  consideration.  That  such  a  paper  money 
would  ultimately  obtain  currency  to  the  exclusion  of  that  of  the 
States,  without  the  means  of  loans  or  discounts,  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  doubt.     It  would  require  time,  however. 

Will  the  adoption,  by  Congress,  of  the  remedies  suggested  fall 
short  of  the  object  to  be  attained  ?  %hen  let  them  adopt,  in  addition 


47 


thereto,  the  one  recently  suggested  by  the  President,  Let  them 
enact  a  bankrupt  law.  Such  a  law  is  loudly  called  for,  in  our  view 
by  a  fair  consideration  of  the  best  interest  and  welfare  of  the  coun- 
try. But  upon  that  subject.  Mr.  Buchanan  has  said  all  that  need 
be  said. 

We  conclude,  then,  here,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  our  con- 
sideration of  the  very  important  and  interesting  subject  of  the  cur- 
rency,  written  out  «  currentc  calamo,"  and  take  leave  of  our  readers 
with  the  hearty  and  earnest  appeal  to  each  and  every  one  of  them 
of  "a  quidreethia  novisti.  candidus  imparti,  si  non  his  utcre 
mecum." 


Date  Due 


